


Felines and Canidae

by Veratrance



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan, no regrets - Fandom, 進撃の巨人 | Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan (Movies)
Genre: Action, Aggressive Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Alcohol, Angst, But that's going to take a while though, Canon Universe, Canon-Typical Violence, Crimes & Criminals, Dominant Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Drinking, Drug Dealing, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Fluff, Eventual softer Levi, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Frustration, Gangs, Hate at First Sight, Hate to Love, He kinda wants to obliterate reader, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, In all senses really, Jealousy, Love Triangles, Love/Hate, Organized Crime, Power Dynamics, Power Play, Shingeki no Kyojin: Kuinaki Sentaku | Attack on Titan: No Regrets, Slow Burn, Smoking, Smut, Swearing, Tension, The Underground (Shingeki no Kyojin), Underground Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Violence, mentions of human trafficking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:34:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 65,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28095495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Veratrance/pseuds/Veratrance
Summary: As a thief in the Underground, you have always managed to keep yourself alive by pickpocketing merchants and robbing poorly skilled criminals. However, with your sister falling sick and desperately needing expensive treatment, you are now forced to change tactics. With no other options left, you decide to sabotage the heists of the most successful gang of thieves in the Underground. Your task is simple: let them do all the preparatory work, and then steal their treasures right in front of their noses.However, it seems you completely underestimated their gang leader, Levi. Hungry for revenge, he relentlessly hunts you down with one goal in mind: to stop you.- Levi x female Reader slow burn-
Relationships: Levi & Reader, Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin)/Reader, Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin)/You, Levi/Reader
Comments: 369
Kudos: 562





	1. Before the storm

**Author's Note:**

> A hate-at-first-sight type of slowburn ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  
> (A very slow type of slowburn also, may I add)
> 
> I like to occasionally add some visuals to my story, so be ready to see images from No Regrets/original AOT and some fan art. Since I'll add the images in the middle of my chapters, I'll put the credits and image sources in the end notes.
> 
> Hope you enjoy the ride!
> 
> \---
> 
> Side note: I’ve watched the No Regrets anime and read the manga, but this story is mainly inspired from the anime! Just letting you know because there are a couple of differences between the two. The most important ones for this story are:  
> 1) In the manga, it seems Levi’s gang only consists of Furlan and Isabel. In the anime however, the gang is a lot bigger. At one point in episode 1 of No Regrets, there is a shot which shows what I assume to be all the members of the gang. This is when Levi walks outside the hideout right after meeting Isabel. They're an entire group, so that will be the case in this story. I was a bit mind fucked about this after I read the manga tbh, but I just assume that in the anime, Furlan, Isabel and Levi form a close clique within the bigger gang they lead.
> 
> 2) In the manga, it seems Levi had taken Isabel in at a young age after finding her on the streets. In the anime however, Isabel comes barging in at a later age, when Levi and Furlan had already long been friends. I’ll incorporate the latter.

“Food prices really have been going up huh?” you sigh, fingers dreamingly sliding over the wooden counter of Gary’s bar. For a moment, you let your mind doze off as you take in the pleasant cozy lighting of the room, the faint sound of chatter in the background, and the familiar smell of mead and sweet beverages that are somehow typical to this bar. This will soon be overthrown by the stench of sweaty men and musty tobacco when the busy hours hit, but for now, you savor the tranquility surrounding you.

“Yeah… these damn upper-ground suppliers. Waltzing in here with their filled bellies, thinking they own the fucking place.” the bearded man in front of you grunts. You observe him as he takes a rag and starts cleaning the counter. His vigorous movements clearly indicate he’s irritated.

Just like you, Gary has never been fond of the rich men who come down this city to further exploit the poor. They undeniably have a fantastic business tactic, though: the fresh, delicious fraction of food is sold above-ground. The trash, the failed harvests, the not-so-pristine batches, just anything that doesn’t fit the standards of the outsiders, is sold in the Underground. Everyone knows people here are too poor to complain anyway. If by miracle some decent products manage to descend into this hell hole, they are sold at ridiculous prices. After all, it is the upper-ground suppliers who control the prices when trading with underground sellers, and evidently, how _could_ the poor roaches from the Underground _ever_ deserve a taste of some decent food, right?

“They should get robbed” you mumble while staring into your glass. You know exactly in which direction you want this conversation to go, and you hope Gary catches on. You don’t want to be too obvious about it though, you’re not the only one in his bar. You quickly glance at the man sitting two barstools away from you. He doesn’t seem to be listening, though. He’s longingly staring into his glass, clearly drinking his sorrows away. The dim, yellow lighting of the room accentuates his tired features, and for a brief moment you wish you could console him somehow.

“Well, they do get robbed. One good thing about the thieves in this city is that they know how to make them arrogant pricks suffer.” Gary grins as he puts the rag away and starts rinsing a beer cup.

“Hmm. You mean they rob them during their trades? Thought it was too heavily guarded? I'm sure these assholes have enough money to pay for surveillance.” You try your best not to sound _too_ curious.

“Guess if you’re with enough people, you can manage anything.” he shrugs.

“Gangs huh?”

There must have been something about your tone that revealed it, because Gary’s hazel eyes suddenly look up at you. He has known you for too long, he knows you want him to give out some precious information. An amused smirk forms on his face and you grin back. You both know.

He discretely glances at the man next to you. Except for him, there isn’t anyone close by. Just two groups of people sitting at the back of the bar. You purposely came here a couple of hours before this place tends to fill up.

Straightening himself up, Gary slides his hand over the smooth dome of his bald head. “I guess so. Want something else to drink?”

You both know what he’s hinting at.

“Yeah. I feel like trying something new though. What are those?” you ask, pointing at the bottles displayed at the far end of the bar. You genuinely have no idea what any of those beverages are, and quite frankly, you don’t really want to know.

“New recipes of mine. Come, I’ll show you what I have.” He jerks his chin for you to follow. You get off your stool and follow him along the counter. He stops in front of the bottles you had pointed at, and a quick glance around you confirms you’re safely out of earshot from everyone else. Gary then takes one of the bottles and fills a shot-glass to the brim. When his eyes flicker up to yours, you give him a raised brow.

“Bit too soon for the strong stuff don’t you think?” You look warily at the shot-glass he shoves in your direction. The dark liquid dances in front of you in a teasing manner, eager to assault your taste buds.

“None of these bottles here are soft. Your request, not mine.” He winks at you with a devilish smirk. Oh how this man loves to torment you sometimes.

With a sigh, you decide to just quickly get it over with. The moment the liquid touches your lips however, you realize it was a grave mistake.

You jolt back in disgust whilst trying your hardest to swallow that monstrosity. “What the fuck is this, Gary?” You can’t help but laugh.

“Watch your mouth missy, it’s my newest art piece. Worked hard on that one.” he grins, looking as amused as you are.

“Oh, it’s definitely artistic. Quite the unique taste you brought to life there.” you mock, mouth still shaped in a grimace of disgust.

He chuckles at your playful insult, and leans closer to you. “So, up to something new I see?”

You give him a lazy shrug. “Just curious about these thieves. What do you know about them?”

Gary is used to this. He knows you never reveal much information. The good thing about him is that he never pries. It’s a sort of silent, mutual accord you two have. He’s like family to you, yet you know nothing about each other’s private lives. You’re not sure why none of you ever felt the need to talk about these things. It’s not that you don’t trust him, but maybe you just both prefer to keep that misery away from here. In this bar, you only talk about mundane occurrences, and forget about all the problems happening in your own lives. It’s quite typical Underground behavior anyway. Prying in each other’s personal matters always comes at a risk, after all. You never know what darkness you may unfold.

You’re sure that through the years though, he has guessed you’re a thief. Yet, he has never confronted you about it. He is simply always ready to help and give you the information you need. He is a barman after all, everything and anything that happens in this city goes through his ears.

You’re not sure when exactly your friendship got so strong, but it all started when you were fifteen. He was being attacked by a group of thugs who wanted to rob his bar. Gary is intimidatingly bulky and strong, and you have rarely seen people with the balls to challenge him, but that day he was outnumbered. You were walking past his bar, and the chaotic noises inside were a clear indication that something was terribly wrong. Normally, you would’ve just left. A fifteen-year-old girl has no business interfering with dangerous fights in this city. You would have been long dead if that was a habit of yours. Yet, when you saw Gary’s face, something in your heart snapped. You couldn’t bring yourself to simply walk away. Instead, you grabbed the two throwable knives you always carried with you, and threw it at two of the attackers. The blades pierced straight into their thighs, which was followed by screams of pain and loud cursing at their buddies to _'get that fucking brat'_. At that, the other two men immediately tried to chase you down. Luckily, you had already vigorously trained your parkouring for years. They might have had longer legs, but you managed to easily duck and crawl through obstacles until they lost you. When you deemed it safe enough to return to Gary’s bar to check on him, he stared at you in disbelief, saying he had feared the worst. “Don’t ever do that again kiddo. You could’ve died.” he said warningly, but the warmth in his voice told you he would forever be grateful.

And he was. Through the years, you came by regularly. You both were always just joking around, talking about everything and anything. He was there to ease your loneliness and to fill your life with the mundaneness you needed, and you suppose you provided the same for him. He never tried anything inappropriate, even when you became of legal age. Instead, he was always a father figure. Even now, he's still protective over you. Every single man who has ever made you uncomfortable here has gotten kicked out of the bar, _harshly _.__ People now know better than to harass you. Maybe this is why this bar is like a second home to you. It feels good to be watched over, to be protected. Much different from any other part of your life. Outside of this bar, you only have yourself.

And right now, Gary's help and protection comes in the form of providing you with any information you need. You can already tell by his gleaming eyes that he has some interesting whispers to tell you, as always.

“There are a couple of gangs who target the bigger trades, but a little birdie told me that one particular gang is responsible for the huge majority of these robberies. Unlike many other groups, they are pretty damn coordinated. Can only assume they’re good at spying for information. Wherever big money appears, they appear. They’ve been able to steal from the richest bastards who have the balls to set foot in this shitty place. “

“Hmm… Interesting.” you murmur. You slide your fingers over the shot-glass as you think this through. “What do you know about this gang?”

“They’re the ones you see flying around with that police gear sometimes. Pretty sure they’re mainly located in the South.”

You look up in surprise. “They’re the ones with ODM gear?”

He nods. “Tells you enough about them. Wouldn’t fuck around with these guys, heard they are one of the most skilled gang of thieves in the city. Apparently, it’s because of their leader. He doesn’t look like it, but the man is a machine. Heard even the Altieri gang from the West don’t wanna mess with him.”

You lift an eyebrow. This is exactly the information you needed, but it definitely sounds dangerous. For a brief moment, you try to contemplate your options.

Deep down though, you already know you don’t have a choice.

You feel a heavy weight in your chest as you remember the pale look on your sister’s face. Luna had always been the cheerful type, full of energy. She always brought that bit of light in your life you needed to push through. Whenever you were hopeless, whenever you were afraid, she always managed to cheer you up with her positive energy. You never thought anything could ever take that energy away from her, but you were wrong. Ever since she got sick a couple of weeks ago, the life has slowly been draining out of her. You’re haunted by the image of her weakened smile as she tried to comfort you, her cold hands caressing yours while she attempted to convince you she was going to be okay. She wasn't. The doctor had been very clear: if she doesn’t get treatment from hospitals in the outside, she won’t make it. You only have around three months at best. Three months to scrape such an absurd amount of money that it has you nearly pulling your own damn hair out. There is no way, no way in _hell_ you could ever collect such an amount by casually pickpocketing around. No matter if you would do it day and night. No matter if you would cross your moral barrier and rob every man and child who crosses your path. The amount of money you need is simply too absurd. People here are way too poor.

No, in order to save your sisters life, you have to look for where the _real_ capital is. Big trades between rich merchants who come from the surface to greedily fill their pockets. Whether the trades involve food, drugs or sex trafficking, you know they’re happening relatively frequently, and you know that **a lot** of money is involved. The problem is: high cash means high surveillance. Sure, you can handle two or three men on your own if you’re being strategic, but it’s physically impossible for you to sabotage an entire trade like that by yourself. You may be ballsy, but you’re not insane. You need other people.

So, what are your options? You can’t simply recruit people to help you. You don’t know anyone skilled enough for the job, and you can’t casually ask around if somebody would be _oh so kind_ to start a gang with you.

Joining a gang would be an option, except you don’t exactly want to get killed or assaulted by a bunch of brutes you don’t know. Seeing as you’re a woman, that would be like a lamb willingly walking into a den of lions. There is no ounce of a chance they would respect you or keep their paws off of you. _Women in the Underground are only good for prostitution and childbearing after all_. Besides, you can’t exactly order people around and demand they perform the heists you have in mind from the get-go.

That leaves you with one last option: instead of joining a gang, you can leech from one. Sabotage their heists. They would have to do all the big tasks: distract or outnumber the victims, find out where their money is, and bring the cash out in the open. And that is exactly when you swoop in, in the midst of the chaos, when the money is exposed and everybody is drowning in the madness of the heist. You would be the one who knows exactly what’s going on, and you would swiftly grab the stolen money when they least expect it.

It’s like pickpocketing a thief who just managed to rob a bank. Slipping the money out of their hands as they’re just about to let out the biggest sigh of relief, thinking they made it.

An unexpected move, and you could take great advantage of that.

You know the risks though. You’ve thought about this over and over again. Whichever gang you will target, they will be **fuming**. They will be **hungry** for your blood. However, you don’t have a choice. You can’t let your sister die. She’s the only family you have left, the only one who has been with you through thick and thin. You have sworn to protect her, even if it means your death.

You take a deep breath.

“Who is that leader?”

Gary narrows his eyes. “Kiddo, don’t get yourself into some dangerous mess.”

It secretly warms your heart, the way he’s never able to repress his protective side, and you can’t help but smile.

”Don’t worry old man. I don’t put myself in anything I can’t handle. I wouldn’t be alive, otherwise.” you reassure him while bringing your hand over his, giving him a warm squeeze.

He sighs and hesitates, but it looks like he realizes you’ll find out anyway, whether he tells you now or not. He has never been able to stop your dangerous missions before, and he knows damn well now is not an exception.

“His name is Levi.”


	2. Cats and Wolves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter covers quite some backstory~

A nervous sigh escapes your lips.

Your senses are filled with the smell of rotten wood as you’re crouched behind a stack of old craters. Though you’re safe and no one can see you hidden in the shadows, you still feel a heavy knot in your stomach.

Are you really going to do this?

You try to bite your self-doubt away. You are a skilled thief, you _know_ that. After your parents died many years ago, the cruelties of the Underground had left you no choice but to ruthlessly train yourself, to challenge your own fears on a daily basis. Not only did you have to fight for your own life, but you also had to take care of Luna. You sometimes genuinely wonder if you would have survived if your parents hadn’t notoriously trained you to fight ever since you were a child, or if you hadn’t inherited your mother’s natural stealth. In all honesty, you probably would have either ended up in the field of prostitution like the majority of young women in this city, or you would have ended up dead and starved on the streets. You weren’t particularly _born_ a strong and courageous child, your parents had just conditioned you to be. They had given you a strong advantage, the push you needed to keep on surviving.

You were thirteen years old when they died, Luna was only nine. The military police had gotten them, ruthlessly murdered them when they went out to get some groceries. You feel a sting in your chest as you remember your mothers last words to you. _“We’ll be out for a bit. We heard they brought some actual fresh apples today! We’ll buy the red ones, your favorites.”_ She crouched down and gave you a warm hug. _“Take care of Luna. We’ll be back soon.”_. You remember the sweetness of her voice, her warm reassuring smile irradiating the entire room.

They never came back.

Your parents knew it would happen eventually. Your bloodline had been hunted by the Royal Government for decades, and it was only a matter of time before your parents were found. Though they tried to warn you since you were young, nothing in the world could have truly prepared you for their deaths. You never _actually_ believed something would happen. You thought your parents were skilled and cautious enough, you trusted them wholeheartedly. That day though, you learned that no matter how careful you are, no matter how much control you think you have, death is always lurking behind the corners, ready to swallow you whole when you least expect it.

Though you might not have been prepared for their deaths, you _were_ prepared to survive. Left alone and scared, you used the tricks you had learned from your parents to steal whatever necessary to survive. At first, you only stole from weak merchants and old people. You targeted the weak because you were weak yourself. Did you get caught and get your ass beat? Absolutely, and it's a miracle you’re still alive. However, this only motivated you to do better. And so, you did. You meticulously trained yourself. Taught yourself how to spy around, parkour around buildings and obstacles, and slyly pickpocket people while distracting them. You kept refining all the things your parents had taught you about self-defense, knife throwing, and fighting. You playfully challenged the kids in your area for fights, and this made you stronger every day. Every time you wanted to give up and crawl back in fear, your mother’s words echoed in your head: _“If you don’t learn to face your fears, the Underground will crush you. Keep fighting, always.”_.

As your skills and confidence grew, you targeted stronger people. People that didn’t leave you feeling a pang of guilt after robbing them. You targeted slightly richer merchants who were known to exploit the poor, you targeted rapists, pedophiles, and the lowest scum you could find. Gary always did an excellent job at providing their identities, after all. You found pleasure in taking away all their belongings, and you didn’t hesitate to leave them a little _souvenir_. A generous kiss by your blade, for example.

Though you secretly liked the rush, you were always careful about who you robbed. You didn’t want to risk having a revenge-thirsty group of criminals hunting you down. You stuck to the lonewolves, and the ones who were clearly only carrying two braincells around in their thick skulls.

Until today.

For the first time, you're about to rob an entire gang. A dangerous one at that. You feel nervous as you remember Gary’s words.

_“Problem with that Levi guy is that he apparently got the brains, the sharpness, and the fighting skills. Pretty fatal combination if you ask me. Good thing he’s just a thief. I think It’d be worse if he was some sort of psychopathic murderer.”_

_“But he has murdered people, right?”_ you asked him.

Gary shrugged _“Absolutely. You don’t obtain that level of respect without shedding some blood. It doesn’t seem to be his goal though, the man just wants to steal. As long as you don’t stand in his way, you’re good.”_

And now you're about to stand in his way.

You would be lying if you said you weren’t scared, but deep down you also like the challenge. You know your strengths and you're sure you can outplay and outrun the bastards if you plan everything well. As long as you don’t get too close to their leader, you’ll be fine. And honestly, how bad can that Levi guy be? You can’t back out because of some rumors surrounding one man. You will simply have to be careful.

In order to find their hideout, you had to spy around for many days. Endlessly sneaking and creeping on roofs and dark corners as you do best. Slinking like a cat in the shadows, you had quickly found out one of their members was… **loud**. It always amused you how careless he was. You didn’t have to spy on him for long before finding out all about their next heist. They're going to attack a trade set by Waltson, one of the wealthier scum who sells products in the Underground. The underground distributors who are going to partake in the trade aren’t angels either. They’re well known to control the entire market and exploit the poverty and hopelessness of the people who live here.

So here you are, waiting for the gang to arrive and make a move. You're in a perfect position, hidden behind old wooden craters in a small, poorly lit side street. With your black hood covering your features, you know you’re nearly impossible to detect in the shadows. The dark alley you’re in opens up to a bigger street, in which you can see the merchants and guards carrying boxes of goods. They’re calmly talking to each other, clearly oblivious of what chaos is going to befall them. You don’t see any money out in the open, but if what you heard from the gang is correct, the bags of cash reside within the wooden craters, hidden from thieves like you.

The gang’s plan is simple: Levi, along with his main companion called Furlan, will use their ODM gear to tumble the boxes down. The impact will break them open, and the money will be scattered on the ground. Four men are charged to grab the cash and flee from the merchants and guards. Can’t really go wrong, can it?

Well, except that you’ll swoop in and ruin their day.

You suddenly hear a noise. A rush of satisfying, but nerve-wracking adrenaline runs through your body as the zipping sound of 3DMG fills your ears.

They’re finally here.

You can suddenly see two people flying by at a rapid speed, undoubtedly Levi and Furlan. This is directly followed by a loud crashing sound. You watch as the stacks of wooden boxes tumble down onto the ground. On the impact, the boxes break open, and the treasures roll on the floor, exactly as the gang had planned. Your sharp focus starts to water out the sound of your hammering heartbeat as you prepare yourself for your next move. You can already see the four gang members running up to the bags, while the merchants and their guards are still frozen in surprise. The first thief quickly grabs the first bag.

_Wait._

_Wait just a little more._

_NOW._

Before the fourth and last member has the chance to grab the remaining treasure, you dart forward and swiftly grab it in front of his face, knowing full well the other members are already ahead and won't turn around to follow you. 

A sound of astonishment blurts out of the man behind you. "Wh.. what the fuck?!"

You keep running without looking back. As you expected, he has no time to turn around and chase you down. The merchants are _right_ on his heels, and the only thing he can do is run forward while probably cursing you to death in his mind. You don't hear the merchants chasing you either. After all, you came from an unexpected angle and they can’t permit the time to change their momentum.

The feeling of triumph inside of you grows by the minute as you run and dart into unexpected alleys to distance yourself from the scene.

If only they could see the grin on your face. You did them _dirty_. A laugh escapes you as you think back at the utter shock of the last gang member when you swooped in.

With a heaving chest, you finally stop in an empty dark alley, knowing perfectly well nobody managed to follow you.

This went even smoother than you expected.

You let out a deep sigh of relief as you take off the black mask covering the lower part of your face. With eagerness and curiosity, you slip your hand inside the bag of money you’re hiding under your black cape.

**Holy shit.**

The rush of excitement that follows almost has you laughing hysterically. It’s… **a lot**. Way more than you had expected.

You did it. You won.

...................

You have no idea how long you’ve been creeping on your neighbor’s roofs. Two hours? Maybe three? Good thing you’re stealthy, otherwise you’d be known as that creep who obsessively stalks her own neighborhood every day.

Deciding you’ve surveilled the perimeter for long enough, you crawl towards a familiar box that has been on of your neighbors’ roof for years. It looks like an ordinary old crater, but it’s where you always hide long vests to cover your attire. You can’t risk ever entering your home with the same clothes you do your crimes in, after all. Nobody in your neighborhood has ever seen you wearing your signature black cloak, and nobody ever will.

Making sure no one sees you, you carefully crawl down the building, and put on your long robe.

Just a normal citizen here, nothing else to see.

After casually walking to your front door, you slide your keys in and quickly scan around one last time before entering. Finally inside, you let out a relieved sigh.

The wooden floor slightly creaks underneath your feet as you drag yourself to your couch. An ugly old thing, but oh so comfortable. With a sigh, you let yourself collapse on the soft cushions.

Sometimes you wonder if your cautiousness isn’t a little _too_ much. The routine of sneaking for hours on end, watching every move of everyone who is in the area, before daring to step into your own home might be a little extreme.

Worse, this isn’t even your real home. You’re just pretending it is. The building you truly sleep in is behind this one.

Okay, so maybe this is all _a tad bit_ dramatic.

You can’t help it though. Whenever you think about the dangers you put yourself in on a daily basis, leading to low life brutes wanting you **dead** , you feel the urge to be ridiculously careful. Your frantic thoughts are only ignited further whenever you remember who your parents are, and who you are. Having to live with the fear of being persecuted and hunted down is something you’ve had to live with since you were born anyway. It’s something that your parents had to ram into your brain to protect you.

It was for a good reason, though. After all, you’re a descendant of the (L/N) family. The genes of your mother are simultaneously a blessing and a curse. The curse is that your bloodline is being prosecuted by the King. This is because apparently, one of your ancestors woke up one morning deciding it would be a _wonderful_ idea to turn against the Royal Government. You have always wondered why, but your mother had never given you any details. Maybe she didn’t know herself, maybe she kept silent to protect you. All you know is that your family, together with the Asian Clan and the Ackerman family, have been notoriously hunted by the Government for decades. This is exactly the reason why your mother fled to the Underground in the first place.

The blessing of your genes, however, is that it comes with a little bit of _power_. A little bit, because apparently, the skills of your family don’t really compare with the ones of the Ackerman family. “We’re like cats, but they’re like wolves.” your mother always used to say. “Both could easily hunt down a scared chicken, but the power difference between the two is quite obvious”. You would always chuckle at her self-deprecating jokes about how “We’re just the watered-down version of the Ackermans, soggy pieces of bread compared to some good ‘ol crunchy toast”, but she never failed to make you feel like you had a gift.

_“There is a reason why our family used to work for the King. Though the Ackermans are physically much stronger, we do compete with them in turns of stealth, speed and senses. Our family’s work for the Royal Government mostly consisted of spying and going on stealthy but dangerous missions. It’s what we’re best at.”_

It's not for nothing your mother was a skilled thief, and it's not for nothing you are too. Sure, relentless training has done a lot, but you would never be this good if it wasn’t for the blood running in your veins. You're sharp. Your eyesight, your hearing, and your sense of smell undoubtedly surpasses the average. Your reflexes are fast, and your stealth comes naturally to you. Hide and seek was your favorite game as a child, after all. You and Luna loved to silently crawl around like cats, hunting each other down.

Genetical heritage really is a strange thing.

You’re not going to pretend like you were exactly _born_ with your fighting skills and good aim though. It has taken you blood, sweat and tears to get there. However, you highly suspect your genes have helped you along the way.

Nonetheless, you never let this get to your head, and neither did your parents. They were always extremely cautious. As a child, you even thought they were _too_ cautious. Oh, how life had quickly proven you wrong.

Their efforts didn’t go down the drain though. The military police have a long way before knowing about you and Luna, because nobody knows you’re related to your parents.

That’s right.

During your thirteen years of living with your parents, you didn’t go out in public together **once**. This might sound a little extreme to some, but in reality, it was necessary. It's probably the one and only reason why you and your sister are still alive. During your entire childhood, you lived separately from your parents. At least, that’s what it looked like. You and your sister lived in the small apartment you’re in right now, while your parents lived in the bigger building behind this one. In reality, both homes are connected with a secret hole in the wall. You slept separately, but during the day, you crawled through the wall and joined your parents. Nobody knew you were related, nobody knew you ate dinner together every day, you were never allowed to tell anyone.

Everyone thought you and your sister were mere orphans. It didn’t always go without questions, though. After all, your parents took good care of you, and they weren’t exactly the poorest in the Underground. Unlike many other households, you didn’t only have the luck of having two living parents, but also two _working_ parents. This isn’t particularly common. The women who want to marry and settle, the ones who decide to avoid a life of escorting, prostitution and brothels, usually resort to being housewives. The job market isn’t particularly big after all, and the brutes in this city aren’t exactly generous enough to allow competition to appear if it can easily be… removed. Luckily, your mother was part of the small group of female criminal masterminds in this city. If it wasn’t for her, you might have fallen into the same systemic prison most women find themselves in in this cursed place. Her words made you stronger, and her work brought food on the table. As your father was a relatively well-paid weapon manufacturer, you and your sister got to eat dinner every night. It wasn’t always nutritious, and it wasn’t always much, but you looked visibly healthier than most orphans. Not to mention that your mother tailored as a hobby, and sewed clothes for Luna and you. Not the most _realistic_ orphans.

Yet, it never posed an issue. You two always came up with well-thought out excuses, and you always got away with it because people generally don’t tend to pry on the lives of orphans. You never got any questions about your residence either. While above-ground, eyebrows would probably be raised at two kids living alone, here, nobody really gives a fuck. It isn’t uncommon for orphans or the homeless to move into abandoned buildings. Nothing is monitored anyway, people just try to survive.

Despite this secret, your parents always watched over you when you left the house. While you played and made friends with the kids in your neighborhood, your mother always kept an eye on you from a distance. Nobody ever seemed to notice, she was a sneaky woman after all. When you came back home, your parents loved to torment you with all kinds of fighting and self-defense lessons. You complained back then, but now you couldn’t be more thankful of everything they taught you. Your father, who was exceptionally skilled at fabricating knives and various other dangerous tools, also taught you how to make knives yourself. He used his basement for that, which to this day, still contains all the necessary tools: stacks of steel, angle grinders, drills, grills to heat metal, handle material such as wood, and so on. Your neighbors are lucky your father’s workspace is in a basement deep beneath the ground, because _holy shit_ , drills and angle grinders are **loud**. It has never bothered you though. You have always found it oddly relaxing to fabricate weapons. The thing you like the most is creating new designs. In the years, you have fabricated pieces so elegant and beautiful that you don’t even dare to use them to fight.

You’ve genuinely thought about following your father’s footsteps and fabricating weapons for a living, but your father always strongly warned you against it. In fact, he forbid you to ever go along that path. He recognized the passion in your eyes, and it scared him. It’s a sketchy, illegal and dangerous business, pestered with savages who don’t have an ounce of respect for women. There isn’t much respect for women in this city in general, so if your father warned you against it, it must be... **bad**. Not exactly the welcoming environment you would like to surround yourself with. Besides, you can’t risk anyone in the business linking you to your father.

Because of this, you decided to just follow your mother’s footsteps and become a full-time thief. Now, many years later, you live alone in the two buildings by yourself. Luna moved out a couple of years ago to live with her now fiancée, Finn. Though you still miss living with her sometimes, you’re also glad she doesn’t live under the same roof as you. With all the risks you put yourself in, it’s safer for her if you don’t live together.

Every day, you enter the small apartment you lived in as a child, and secretly sleep in the house your parents used to live in. It brings you a great sense of safety. If ever Levi’s gang somehow manages to follow you home, they still won’t know where you actually sleep. You have good ears, if they would ever try to break into your small apartment, you would hear it immediately, and it would give you time to come up with a plan.

They’ll never catch you. You’re fast, you’re excellent at stealing and running away, and you’re nearly untraceable.

Guess the bastards will simply have to deal with you for the next couple of heists.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope the backstory wasn’t too much or too boring to read! It will pay off though, because it's important for the rest of the story.
> 
> What happens when a cat meets a wolf? Does it escape or does it get absolutely obliterated? Who knows? Guess we’ll just have to see ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
> 
> Levi will appear very soon hehe


	3. Eye to eye

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains some images! So if you're like me and love to pretend you're reading assignments & research papers while actually being on AO3, I have to warn you that this trick might not work for this chapter lmaoooo
> 
> Enjoy ~

The moment you wake up and open your eyes, you immediately feel a rush of adrenaline flowing through your body. A good mix between excitement and dread. Today, you finally get to act like a despicable roach again: it’s time to sabotage a new heist.

The sum you had stolen last time was a lot, but you will definitely need to do this a couple more times before you can actually afford your sister’s treatment.

You had decided to wait before planning your second attack. If Levi and his men had anything for brains, they would definitely be more cautious after your first stunt. This would undoubtedly pose a problem, because it’s important they're caught off guard. This had left you no choice but to wait it out a bit. Unfortunately, you couldn’t wait for too long. After all, life is like a ticking bomb, urging you to _hurry the hell up_ already. You decided to let them organize three robberies before interfering again. Their first two missions were very small anyway, it wouldn’t have helped much to sabotage those. Their last mission was bigger, but not as big as the one that is going to take place today. You just have to hope they think your first sabotage was an anomaly.

In the meantime, two and a half weeks have gone by. That means you have already lost four weeks in total, if you count the time it took to form your plan and perform your first sabotage. The idea you’re already at a third of your time makes you want to take a shovel and bury yourself into the ground until you reach the core of the earth and melt away into nothingness. These merchants better bring a **GOOD** amount.

Feeling nervous, you slip on your black pants, and a black corset top you fabricated a couple of months ago. No doubt your best work yet. You made it out of a stretchable material and lacy pieces of fabric. It has the elegance of a corset, tightly hugging your body in a flattering way, yet it isn’t as restrictive. Perfect for your missions.

It might be pointless to put effort into something as insignificant as your looks, but it’s one of the few pleasures you can allow yourself to have. You know it doesn’t matter, particularly with all the poverty and suffering around you, but you suppose it’s just a way to feel slightly better. Mainly, you like designing new clothes, you like creating in general. Turning simple, raw material into something beautiful and complex has always been one of the sweet pleasures you like to indulge yourself in.

The only reason you're able to occasionally escape life by losing yourself into this creative occupancy, is because your grandmother was a tailor. She collected a wide variety of fabrics over the span of her life, and left all the treasures behind for you and your mother to use. Some of her fabrics are definitely on the expensive side, and you highly suspect them of being stolen. After all, your grandmother had been prosecuted by the Royal family as well. She passed her tailoring knowledge and skills onto your mother, who then tried to pass it onto you. Keyword here is _‘tried’_ , because unfortunately, anyone with the slightest couture standard who would look closer at your stitching would probably **scream** in horror. Not that this is truly relevant really, many people here live in ripped drapes anyway. However, from what you’ve heard from your mother, your grandmother _would_ judge you if she was still alive.

And while you’re on the subject, she would probably give you a disapproving frown regardless of your skills. Though you wouldn’t call your top outrageous, it also isn’t exactly the most _modest_ piece you've created. It’s nothing compared to the typical promiscuity of this city, but you don’t look like the epitome of innocence either.

You definitely haven’t always been like this. Back when you were younger, you saw your femininity as a weakness, a disadvantage. That is because in the Underground, it is quite common for men to act like primitive fucking dogs. For your safety, you started to hide your gender the moment your parents weren’t around to protect you anymore. As you got stronger and gained more confidence in your ability to fight and defend yourself, you cared less and less about hiding who you were. In fact, you liked showing those little cunts that they were getting defeated by a woman. As you stopped hiding your features, you started to notice an interesting pattern: the men who went berserk when seeing a slight bit of skin, truly replaced their last three braincells with their dicks. It seemed to cloud their judgement and focus. Not only did they have more difficulty keeping a cool head, but you also noticed they would underestimate you. Femininity equals weakness to them, and you **loved** taking advantage of that. Their rage and determination to get their stolen goods back would make place for their animalistic lust. Whether this meant staring at your forms for a second too long, or thinking about what they wanted to do to you, this little _tear_ in their focus always gave you the perfect opportunity to make your move. There’s no denying it’s a dangerous tactic, but you’re always prepared. The years of training have refined your skills in such a way that you’ve been able to turn the tables around to your advantage.

Mainly, it makes you feel more powerful. Not only does it simply feel good to look good, but it’s also a ‘fuck you’ to the ones who’ve made you cower in fear for years. It’s a reminder of how far you’ve come, a reminder that you won’t let anyone control you anymore. You hope all the bastards you’ve taught a lesson will now think twice before associating femininity with weakness and inferiority. In name of all the women who haven’t been as lucky as you have, who have been continuously degraded and mistreated in this cursed place.

It’s nothing extreme, though. You always wear a black cape to cover your arms up anyway. Your big hood helps with your anonymity, along with the black face mask you often wear. Can’t have any of those brutes recognizing you, after all. To make your attire fully functionable, you always wear various pockets and straps for your weapons. For today, you’ve decided to strap one regular knife, and two small throwable knives on your right thigh. On your left thigh, you’re carrying your newly designed throwable weapon: a circular tri-blade throwing star. 

You briefly give yourself a last glance in the mirror.

 _Welp._ Time to put yourself in danger again.

...................

**Fuck.**

Your heart is pounding so hard against your ribs that you feel like they might break any second from now. With a heaving chest and sweat prickling down your back, you force your legs forward. Without hesitating, you take a quick turn into an dark alley on your right.

They're _right_ behind you.

Just like last time, you successfully managed to grab a part of the treasure trove as they robbed a group of merchants. The difference now, however, is that one of the men started to chase you down. If it wasn’t for your rushing adrenaline and the danger you're in, you probably would’ve found this situation hilarious. A thief chased by another thief, who in turn is chased by one of the merchant’s guards.

You take a quick glance behind you while running as fast as your legs allow you too. The gang member chasing you down is **fuming** with rage. Your cocky side is amused and wants to enrage him further for the thrill, your rational side screams at you to run **faster.**

You take unexpected turns and corners, climb over fences, crawl into tight spaces using your small height, but to no avail. Though the guard has lost both of you a long time ago, your direct chaser clearly refuses to let you go. He is undeniably good at parkouring and chasing you down.

Luckily though, it seems you're better _._ You manage to greatly increase the distance between both of you, and it looks like you’re starting to win. He is starting to _tire out._

Focusing on your escape, you suddenly recognize where you are. You purposely take a turn to the right, leading you to an alley with a dead end. The twist though, is that there’s a waste container pushed against the wall of a relatively small building. Without too much effort, you crawl on top of it and lift yourself onto the roof.

“ **HEY! Come back here you piece of _SHIT!_** ”. You turn around and watch how the embodiment of anger stalks towards the container beneath you.

Holding yourself onto the wall, you use all your weight and force to push at it, causing it to tumble down. The gang member behind you curses furiously as he tries to push the container back. However, before he is even able to crawl onto the roof, you are long gone.

...................

Closing your eyes, you take off your mask and allow your heartbeat to stabilize again. You’re in a small alley, quite far away from the last place your chaser has seen you. You had deemed this place safe enough when you arrived, so you decided to catch your breath for a bit. All the while, you’ve been straining your ears to make sure no one has been following you. The only thing you still need to do now is switch your outfit. There’s a crater in which you put one of your long vests a couple of streets away, so that’s the only thing left to do.

A feeling of victory and relief floods your body as you let yourself relax. You can’t help the mocking smile forming on your face as you think about what you just did.

Oh, how they must _hate_ you.

Deciding rest has overstayed its welcome, you get back on your feet to go perform your final task. Once your outfit will be switched, it will finally be over. You will be unrecognizable again, and safe. You honestly just want to be in the comfort and safety of your home as soon as possible. Crawling in your bed with a book and a glass of water sounds **heavenly** right now.

You’re carefully crossing a broad empty street, when a sudden sound makes your body freeze.

_What is that noise?_

**Oh fu-**

Before you can even turn around, a strong force slams into you, knocking all the oxygen out or your lungs. In an eyeblink, your entire body is lifted up in the air. You expect to immediately fall down, but you don’t.

_What the hell?_

Your brain has no time to process what is going on as you’re harshly thrown on the ground. The impact makes you roll on the floor, leading to painful stones and debris digging into your skin. As you come to a stop and open your eyes, the first thing you notice is that you’re surrounded by darkness. Disoriented and dizzy, you look around and quickly conclude you’re in what must be an abandoned building, a ruin that is on the verge of collapsing. That’s when your eyes dart towards the one source of light that illuminates the room: a big hole in the wall, opening out to the city. To your horror, you see someone standing there, _looking at you._ Though you can’t really see their face due to the contrasting light of the city behind them, you can make out the form of what can only be ODM gear. It takes you a couple of seconds to understand what just happened: the person in front of you used their 3DMG to grab you, lift you up, and throw you inside the higher floors of an abandoned dark ruin.

Suddenly, the shadow takes a step forward.

Your entire body freezes as you recognize him. The one and only person you truly wanted to avoid.

Levi.

You suddenly see it. His ice-cold, venomous stare. At this sight, your heart _drops_. You've seen many dangerous people before, made eye contact with criminals who wanted nothing more than to shed your blood, but this is something else. The way he is staring at you is absolutely **mortifying.**

For some reason, the eye contact brings up a strange feeling of familiarity.

You have seen those eyes before.

Suddenly, an old memory resurges in your mind. A memory you thought you had forgotten a long time ago. You were around ten or eleven. You were walking around with your sister, and your mother was at a relatively close distance. Close enough to guard you, but distant enough to seem like you weren’t related. As your mother had to stop watching you for a minute to buy some groceries, you suddenly noticed a crowd forming a bit further away. Driven by curiosity, you grabbed your sister’s hand and approached the growing crowd. Your mom wouldn’t mind right? You just wanted to take a quick peep and see what was going on. As you came closer and merged into the crowd, you could see a boy who looked older than you, probably around fourteen or fifteen, violently beating up a grown man. Frozen in shock, the only thing you could do was stare. Your parents had always concealed you from the violence of the Underground. Though they had often warned you about it, you really hadn’t seen much of it with your own eyes. Up until then. Holding a knife in his hand, the boy was brutally beating the man into a vegetable state. Some people in the crowd looked disturbed, but most were cheering and seemed to enjoy the view.

You just stood there, frozen. Looking at his rage, looking at the man getting utterly destroyed. Once the boy had further mutilated him with his knife, and the poor bastard was clearly unconscious, he stopped. Suddenly, his eyes darted into the crowd.

Directly to **you.**

You remember how your heart shriveled in dread as you stared into his murderous eyes. Orbs filled with rage and an endless amount of darkness. However, despite how terrifying his expression was, you remember that for a split second, you found there was something… strangely beautiful about his eyes. They were of an unusual, sort of icy blue-ish color that you had never seen before. Nevertheless, his gaze was beyond terrifying. You remember it sending shudders down your spine, scaring you to the bone. The eye-contact probably only lasted a couple of seconds, but to you it felt like years. His attention then darted to somewhere else in the crowd, but you couldn’t see what he was looking at. He then froze, and something about his expression changed as he was longingly staring in front of him. You had always wondered what he was looking at that day, but you never found out because your mother was suddenly standing behind you, secretly pinching your shoulder to let you know you were in big trouble for sneaking away.

And now, many years later, you find yourself in front of those same eyes again. You know it’s him. You’d recognize those eyes in a heartbeat.

The difference this time, however, is that his rage is directly aimed at **_you._**

You gasp in terror as he takes another step forward, causing a jolt of panic to shake you back to reality. You start to crawl back in fear, with the debris of the abandoned ruin painfully digging into your palms. You have no idea why you’re so afraid, but you just feel in every part of your body that he is _much_ more dangerous than anyone else you’ve had to deal with thus far. Maintaining his vicious gaze onto you, he suddenly fastens his pace, darting straight into your direction. Without even thinking, your hand reaches for your circular blade, and you throw it at him at full speed. To your surprise, he manages to dodge it by a millisecond, causing the blade to only leave a mere cut on his cheek. His eyes widen, clearly stunned by the fact you nearly managed to kill him. That only lasts about a second though, because as he brings his hand to his bloodied jaw, his expression darkens into something so evil and somber that you're completely frozen in place. The sight alone makes your blood turn to ice, and it feels like the temperature of the room has suddenly dropped twenty degrees.

You feel it in every part of your body. He wants to utterly _destroy_ you.

With a sudden move, he bounces towards you at an alarming speed.

A shriek of horror escapes you as you try to slip away. You quickly reach for your knife on your left thigh, but he is too fast. Before you know it, he lifts you up and slams you against the cold wall behind you with full force. You gasp at the impact, but you’re immediately interrupted by an ice-cold hand chocking your throat. You helplessly try to struggle away, but to your horror, you notice that he has you completely in his power. He has your right hand pinned against the wall, and his entire body is pushed against yours, making it almost impossible for you to move. Though he doesn’t have your left hand pinned, you can barely move it with all the force being pushed on your shoulder and upper arm.

“ _You’re going to pay for that._ ” he hisses in your ear. His voice is beyond menacing, and all you can feel is pure dread swallowing you whole.

You whimper, but it only comes out as a muffled cry as you try to gasp for air. While you’re struggling to breathe, he mercilessly stares you in the eyes like a predator observing his helpless prey before death. Your mind is filled with racing thoughts of panic, and his deadly gaze is only igniting this further. After what feels like an eternity, he slightly loosens his grip on your throat.

Finally having access to oxygen, you pant and try to regulate your breathing. It’s only after a few moments that you finally scrape up the courage to look back into his stabbing, silver eyes.

“You’re the fucking rat who stole from us last time too, aren’t you?” he spits out hatefully.

“Maybe.” you reply with a pretended confidence that is absolutely non-existent. A futile attempt to hide your fear, as if you didn’t just shriek in terror a moment ago.

He pauses and observes you for a moment, and you feel like his gaze is stripping you naked. It’s as if he’s directly looking for every corner of your soul, for every thought or emotion you might try to hide away from him. In a strange moment of insanity, you can almost see what you saw when you were a child: an eerie beauty in his eyes that you can't quite explain.

However, this beautiful epiphany only lasts about a second, because he then decides to stop the silent staring contest between you two.

“You might be surprised to hear that I didn’t exactly _appreciate_ your filthy little stunt from last time.” he murmurs with poisonous sarcasm. The sharp bitterness in his tone makes the hairs on your neck stand up.

“Maybe I should just give you to my men”, he continuous, “I know they’d **love** to get their hands on the little pest that’s been disrupting our plans. I could use the laugh anyway.”. His voice is creeping with pure maliciousness.

Never mind, there is absolutely nothing beautiful about this monster.

Maybe it’s the adrenaline, maybe it’s the exhaustion, but suddenly you feel yourself filling up with rage. It’s not like you fucking asked for any of this. You hate being here. You hate him and his gang. You hate that your sister is sick. You hate that your parents aren’t there anymore. You hate that you have secretly become so lonely over the years. You hate _yourself_ for letting this animal shred all your confidence and strength in only a fraction of a second. You hate _him_ for making you feel so small.

“ _ **FUCK. You.**_ ” you hiss, with a rage and bitterness that surprises even yourself.

He quirks an eyebrow at the unexpected fury in your voice.

The words escape your mouth before you can stop yourself. “And get off your high horse, you’re nothing more than a thief either you hypocritical piece of **shi-** “

Before you can even finish, he removes his hand from your throat and ruthlessly grips your jaw, pushing your head hard against the wall. You grit your teeth as he painfully digs his fingers into your skin.

“That’s a lot of _nerve_ for a weak little brat.” he grunts with a low, dangerous tone.

As you struggle in rage, you feel your left arm gaining slightly more freedom. You keep struggling with all the force you have, though it seems completely useless against his strong grip.

That’s when you both hear it.

A soft **_SNAP._**

You both freeze, and you suddenly feel a release of pressure around your breasts. _The fuck?_

_Oh._

In a fraction of a second, you realize what happened. You don’t even need to look down to see it.

… Okay so maybe your sewing skills _do_ need a little bit of improvement.

Levi’s eyes dart down to the source of the sound. You see his eyes widening in surprise and confusement as he processes that the first button of your tight corset snapped due to your struggling, leaving a not-so-modest part of your breasts exposed.

It only lasts a second, but you feel his grip loosen ever so slightly. _A tear in his focus._ Something you’ve learned to take advantage of many times before. Though this time it wasn’t intentional, you know that this is it, the moment to make your move. In an eyeblink, you twist your right wrist in a way you’ve perfected during your years of self-defense training, freeing your hand from his grip. Before he can pin your hand back, you dig your nails with full force into his Adam’s apple. He makes a chocking guttural sound, and you seize this opportunity to release your left arm and twist his hand off your chin. With both hands free, you give him a hard kick in the stomach and harshly push him away to escape.

Before you even manage to take two steps forward, a strong grip grabs you by the waist. A shriek escapes your mouth as you’re violently pushed against the ground. You roll around to face him, but before you can do anything, he is already on top of you. With fury in his eyes, he ruthlessly pins your wrists above your head.

“You **_fucking_ bitch**.” he grunts in boiling rage.

You stare straight into his murderous eyes. Frozen. Breath stuck in your throat. You're so frightened you can't even scream.

He looks at you like he is about to **skin** you alive, and you genuinely don’t think you’ve ever been this terrified of someone before.

Your eyes dart towards his throat. The marks of your nails are clearly visible, and blood is streaming down to his collarbone. You swallow in fear.  
…. Maybe you shouldn’t have gone for such a painful spot, he is going to _annihilate_ you now.

Moving at an alarming speed, he reaches for his knife in his pocket, leaving only one hand pinning you down. In a reflex, you take this opportunity to twist your hand free and launch for his arm, which is already holding the knife. Making use of your momentum, you push his arm away and roll on top of him. This is followed by an annoyed grunt underneath you. With the impact, Levi’s knife falls on the ground, at an arm's length away from you. You don’t hesitate, and quickly reach for it.

But he’s faster.

Before you know it, he has your wrist in his grip. With a cry, you try to break your hand free with all the power you have left, but he is clearly much stronger.

Suddenly, a rough hand grips your neck. In one swift move, he pulls you back and rolls on top of you again, pinning both your hands above your head once more.

You hopelessly try to break free, but he just effortlessly holds you down while watching you with murderous eyes. After a few moments of struggling, you realize it’s pointless. The only thing you're essentially doing at this point is rubbing yourself against his body. The thought makes you slightly embarrassed, and you resort to sighing in defeat.

“You done?” he asks coldly.

You don’t answer.

Putting his weight on one hand again, he slips his other hand downwards. You try to use this to break free again, but this time, your hands don’t budge.

“ _Tch._ You really thought that was going to work again?” he scoffs, sounding truly annoyed.

You suddenly feel his hand in your cape. With a surprised frown, your look down to see what he is doing. That’s when you see him slipping out the bag of money you stole earlier.

You look at him with furious eyes. It hurts more than you’d like to admit, seeing all your efforts going down the drain. Sure, it is his to take. You had leeched off of them after all. Nevertheless, there is no denying that it took you a lot of effort to stalk, spy, and prepare for your attack. What breaks your heart the most though, is that you _desperately_ need this money. Every step back is a step closer to your sister’s death.

Unbothered, Levi proceeds to slowly slide his hand towards your thigh.

You frown. What is he-

“You won’t be needing this anymore either.” he explains with an almost mocking tone, as he slides your big knife, and your two small throwable knives out of your thigh straps. He does it slowly to piss you off even more. Your eyes widen as you see him putting all your belongings in his own pockets.

_The fucking asshole._

Though you aren’t particular attached to your small throwable knives, you do care about you bigger knife. It’s one of the few weapons you’ve had for a very long time. You made it with your father nine years ago, when he was teaching you how to make pocketknives. For this one in particular, he added a little design to it. A beautiful flower on the wooden handle that he made just for you. He wanted to teach you the beauty and art of weapon design. With a sharp pain, you remember his warm smile.

At this, something inside of you explodes. Your temper bursts open, and all the hopelessness, anger, sadness and fright you’ve been feeling the past few weeks flood together and turn into raw, burning rage. You suddenly lose all control. Maybe you really have lost your mind after all.

“I’ll fucking **KILL you.** ” you scream in anger, slamming your feet at full force on the floor. The ground beneath you trembles in return.

“Oi, shut the FUCK up.” he rolls his eyes in irritation. “Trust, you’ll have _much_ more to cry about when I’m finished with you, you insolent brat.”

Suddenly, both of you freeze.

What is that noise?

A soft creak?

You focus your hearing. You hear harder creaks, and what sounds like hard materials sliding against each other. In a flash, Levi looks upward, and you see his eyes widening. He suddenly bounces off of you.

That’s when you see it.

A part of the ceiling is… falling.

**Straight onto _you._**

Frozen in place, a sharp scream escapes your throat. You barely process the sudden force dragging you across the floor. For a moment, the only thing you feel is your raging heartbeat exploding in your chest.

Are you still alive?

You slowly open your eyes and blink. It takes you a couple of seconds to realize what you’re looking at: a pile of huge rocks and broken wooden planks, resting exactly where you were laying just a second ago. In shock, you look at Levi standing right behind you. Did … did he just save your life?

However, you don’t have time to linger on this. In a swift move, you bounce on your feet as you hear more creaking and scratching noises. They don’t only come from above you but from beneath you as well.

You realize that the fight between you two, and your raging stomp to top it off, just started a chain of events. The moment you landed here, you had immediately noticed the building was on the verge of collapsing, but you didn’t actually think it **_would._**

“ _Shit._ ” you hear Levi hissing through his teeth behind you.

Suddenly, you hear a loud noise coming from right above, and you bounce forward in a reflex. You look back and stare at two large rotten planks you managed to dodge just on time. Levi had bounced backwards to dodge them. Now you two stand there, with debris and rotten planks between you. Your eyes dart towards each other at the same time.

You have two options. You can either go with Levi, as he has his 3DMG and could jump out of the building through the opening you came in in the first place. The opening is only a couple of steps behind him, so that would definitely work. However, this would just guarantee your inevitable doom.

Your second option is to take the risk and try to run out of the building yourself using the stairs behind you.

You choose the latter. You would much rather get crushed under a bunch of rocks than get tortured and humiliated to death by a group of brutes.

He must have realized your thought process, because he suddenly darts forward to grab you. However, with the debris separating you two, you’re at an advantage. You launch yourself back towards the stairs. A sharp feeling of panic jolts through your body as you hear his footsteps right behind you. He clearly isn’t planning on letting you go this easily. Heart hammering in your chest, you stumble down the stairs. This is followed by a loud noise of falling debris right behind you, mixed with the sound of Levi’s mumbled cursing. Without looking back, you run down the flight of stairs. You don’t hear him behind you anymore, and you can only assume he was stopped by the falling debris behind you.

Did he get crushed?

You don’t have time to linger on this, you need to get out of this hell as fast as possible.

When you reach the last set of stairs, the surface underneath you suddenly collapses. With a screech, you feel your weight dropping, but you manage to grab onto the surrounding set of planks around you. It takes you a second to realize you just stepped on a rotten plank, which collapsed underneath your feet. With all your strength, you haul yourself out of the hole, and stumble towards the exit as fast as you can.

Pulse pounding like a jackhammer, you try to distance yourself from the building as fast as you can by running through small dark alleys. You quickly look for a place to hide, and decide to crawl inside a big wooden crater right beside you. Finally feeling somewhat safe and hidden inside, you try to catch your breath. You hadn’t really heard any 3DMG noises when you ran outside. Did he even make it out alive? If you’re lucky, he didn’t. However, you can’t risk walking out in the open right now, as he might be hunting you down from the sky. But here, safely hidden in your little crater, he won’t find you. You try to control your breathing, but the panic in your chest seems untamable. Before you can stop it, warm tears roll down your cheeks as all the events flash before your eyes again and again. With an exhausted sigh, you close your eyes.

Who knows how many hours you will stay hidden this time?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Levi angst has b e g u n. Hope you enjoyed! 
> 
> Confession: this is my first time writing (which begs the question: why am I posting my first try on this elite site, & honestly idk, pls forgiv me), so feedback and constructive criticism is appreciated!! C: 
> 
> **PS:** Feel free to roast my noob ass but pls don’t be _too_ harsh because English isn’t my native language and I have a sensible heart 🥺 So bear with me because google translate has been my best friend thus far LMFAOOO. I mean, I guess my English is alright, but words don’t come as naturally to me as they should, so I’ll have to practice a lot more before my writing style gets decent. I suppose that’s the case for anyone who writes for the first time though lol. Aside from the writing style there's also the writing content, for which you can truly roast me however you want. I'm already noticing things I could've done better, but hey, that's part of the learning process!
> 
>  **Image credits:**  
>  1) [ Gif from AOT: No Regrets](https://suzuyajuzoo.tumblr.com/post/182224044736) by tumblr user: suzuyajuzoo.  
> 2) from AOT: No Regrets. Edit found on pinterest . Originally posted on [wattpad.](https://www.wattpad.com/story/135836054?utm_source=android&;utm_medium=pinterest&;utm_content=share_inline_media&;wp_page=media_slideshow_button&;wp_uname=Dae-)


	4. Hot mugs and Sweet hugs

You crawl out of bed with a painful wince. For a brief moment, you stare at yourself in your old, broken mirror. You look like _shit_. Tumbling down on painful debris, violently getting slammed against hard surfaces, wreckage falling on you during the collapse, all of yesterday’s events has left your body bruised and tired. The worst is that the fruits of your labor have mercilessly been snatched away from you. You lost **everything**. Reluctantly, you force yourself into your daily routine. Brushing your teeth, warming up some water on the stove for a quick bath, putting clothes on, and eating a sad piece of bread with canned soup. All the while, only one thought haunts your mind: what now?

You would be lying if you said yesterday’s events haven't freaked you out. It all got a little _too_ close for your liking. Though you would love to pretend you’re some sort of fearless heroine, you're far from that. All you can see is deadly silver eyes, piercing through you and eager to put an end to your life. He has ODM gear, he can easily chase you down from above, and something tells you that hunting is one of his many specialties.

So what on earth are you supposed to do now?

You hate that one encounter has sucked all the motivation and determination out of you, but you can’t help it. Fate has apparently decided to play a cruel little game on you: the same person who had scared you to the bone as a child, who had unintentionally introduced you to raw violence for the first time, is now your _arch enemy._

Wonderful.

You feel lost. You’re in this alone, and right now you just wish you had someone who could lead the way.

After a couple of hours of pondering, walking in circles, and cursing yourself for being so weak, you decide to go visit your sister. You just need a familiar face right now, a distraction. Maybe also a **hit of reality**.

Making sure you aren’t being followed, you make your way down the dirty streets of the city, towards the house you’re so familiar with. Once you arrive, you knock two times, and it only takes a couple of seconds for the door to swing open.

“Oh hi you!”, delighted hazel eyes welcome you, “I’m so glad to see you! I was almost starting to get worried there, it’s been weeks!”.

Finn is right, you usually never disappear for so long. You had told yourself that you just didn’t have time, that you were too busy finding a way to pay for the treatment. In reality though, if you are truly being honest with yourself, you know damn well you purposely avoided this place. It feels selfish, but you just couldn’t bring yourself to watch your sister slowly deteriorate.

Your attention darts towards Finn’s features. His brown locks look rough and dry. The color is drained out of his skin, and his dark eyebags only accentuate this. He is noticeably skinnier than the last time you saw him, and his green eyes look tired. A painful wave of guilt washes over you, and you can’t help but embrace him in a hug. Your quick movements startle him for just a second, but he quickly regains his composure and tightly holds you in his embrace. You can actually **_feel_** your heart breaking. He feels much bonier than before, and you wonder how much food he has been sacrificing to spare money for your sister. The worst thing is that you both know he could stop eating for years and still not reach the required sum. Part of you wants to shake him awake, telling him he needs to **stop** and just take care of himself. The other part of you perfectly understands this is what he needs to do to ease his consciousness. After all, you are no different, risking your health and your life the way you do.

After giving you one last warm squeeze, he lets you go and leads you inside. “Luna, it’s your sister!” he announces while knocking on the bedroom door, and slowly opening it. You swallow at the sight. She looks so much worse than last time. She must have noticed your pained and shocked expression, because she immediately sets herself straight and forces herself to look alive and energetic.

Typical of her. Always trying to make others feel better.

“Lulu...” Her nickname comes out as a pained whisper. You can almost feel the tears coming up.

“Hey, why the sad face? Come in, you bugger. Give me a hug!”  
You crack a saddened smile and storm in, tightly hugging her frail body. You could cry at how fragile she feels in your arms.

“How have you been? I haven’t seen you for a while. You better not be putting yourself in any danger.” she mumbles in your neck while tracing soft circles on your back. She knows well enough that you are. She has known you for way too long to think you would just sit back and watch her die.

She gently pulls back and looks at you.  
You give her a warm smile. “Don’t worry about me, I-“

You’re interrupted by a sudden frown. She traces her hands over your cheek with worry in her expression. “Your face is bruised. What happened?”

You quickly pull away and sit back on the chair beside her bed. “Don’t worry about me, just the usual stuff.” You wave dismissively and smile in an attempt to soothe her concerns.

She lifts an eyebrow. “Yeah I don’t believe any of that. Confess or I’ll whoop your ass.”

You snort into a laughter. “You? Whooping MY ass? Careful who you’re talking to.”. You pause for a moment before continuing with a more serious tone. “No, honestly Lulu, don’t worry about it. You know I’m careful and I take care of myself. When did you ever have to be concerned about me?”

“Always.” she mutters, but not without a smirk.

You take her hand and give her a warm squeeze. With a sigh, she decides to let it go. You know she’s fully aware she can’t do anything about it anyway. The best thing she can do is trust you.

“Do you two want anything? Something to drink or to eat maybe?” Finn interrupts behind you.

“I’d love some hot water if it’s not too much trouble.” you tell him with a thankful smile.  
The Underground’s equivalent of tea. To be honest, you have tasted tea before, and hot water isn’t **that** far from it. It’s almost just as soothing, and soothing you need.

“I’ll take three cups.” he says enthusiastically before turning on his heels.

“I brought something for you.” You rumble through your bag and hand your sister an old book. “Found it while I was cleaning the house. I thought it was long gone, but apparently it was laying on top of our bookshelf.”

She takes the book, and her eyes widen in excitement “Oh my God that was my favorite one!!” her voice almost comes out as a squeak. You can’t help but laugh at her excitement. The old energetic Luna you’ve always known is clearly back.

“I know. How could I ever forget your years of rambling about the characters of that book? Utter pain in the ass.”

She grins back at you and skips through parts of the book. With excitement, she reminds you of specific chapters she used to torment you with as a child, but your mind is already wandering somewhere else.

You can’t let her go. There’s no fucking way. You would drag yourself through the darkest pits of hell before giving up on her.

Finn walks in and hands you a hot cup of water before getting further assaulted by Luna’s adorable rambling. Letting the hot liquid soothe you, you start to think about what to do next.

What are your options? Switching to another gang?

No. First of all, if what Gary said is correct, there is no other group that organizes such big operations so frequently. Chances are high it will already be too late before one of the other gangs performs a worthy heist. Second of all, it had taken you many days to track down Levi’s gang and spy on them. You can’t afford to lose that amount of time again. It only takes one glance at the frail body lying in front of you to know you don’t have much time left. You don’t have the margin to start targeting a new group.

Third, a part of you is hungry for revenge. Maybe it isn’t the most _rational_ emotion to be feeling right now, but you hate how that execrable thug successfully managed to make you feel so small.

_“Weak little brat.”_

Yeah right. Maybe it’s time to show him what you’re made of. The more you think back on it, the more your blood starts to boil. It’s not that he didn’t have the right to lash onto you, but you are **not** going to let him crush you this easily. A part of you wants nothing more than to prove him wrong and to make him furious. You just weren’t prepared enough, you naively left the 3DMG out of the equation. You just need a better plan. Surely, there **has** to be a way, right?

You look at Luna and Finn. It looks like life has chewed them up and spit them out, but they’re still strongly holding on.

_“If you don’t learn to face your fears, the Underground will crush you. Keep fighting, always.”_

You clench your fists. You’ll be damned before letting that piece of shit stand in the way of your goals, in the way of your family’s wellbeing. This isn’t the first time you are in a dangerous situation, and it won’t be the last.

He thinks he can stop you?

Let’s see him try.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sounds like Reader is bringing herself into some new mess again. How u n f o r t u n a t e amirite?
> 
> Let’s see how this unfolds hehe 
> 
> Because this is a such a short chapter, I’m going to take the opportunity to talk a little bit about Underground Levi. Thing is, we don’t have an endless amount of knowledge about his underground days, but we still got some useful information about his character. So I’m quickly going to discuss some important points about his underground-self, which will be incorporated into my story:
> 
>   1. Though I cannot pull the ‘Dominant Captain Levi daddy sir’ card (unfortunately), I don’t doubt for a second that he is the same type of dominant and respected leader figure in the Underground. That intimidating, ‘don’t fuck with me’ personality can’t come out of nowhere, after all. The authority he exerts is in fact well portrayed in the No Regrets anime, right after he meets Isabel and walks outside. His gang members hastily push themselves out of his way, and they all just look at him in silent admiration. Big Alpha-energy shot there LOOOL. I’m sure you’ll notice it too if you watch it back.
>   2. Underground Levi is definitely far more violent, and he has no issue murdering people who mess with him or the people he loves. This is shown to us on two occasions: 1) in the manga, Isabel comes home at one point with 1 of her pigtails cut off, as she got bullied/beaten up by some people. When Levi sees this, he hunts them down and murders them. 2) After Erwin captures Levi and humiliates him in the process, Levi has only one goal in mind: to murder Erwin. He barely cares about anything else, the thing he longs for the most, is to kill the person who messed with him. It was very clear (esp in the manga) that he would not **rest** until the man was dead, out of pure lust for revenge. So this concept, of Levi being revengeful and wanting to eliminate anyone who messes with him or humiliates him, will be incorporated into my story
>   3. Underground Levi definitely has quite the reputation. Not only because whispers of his absurd skills managed to reach the ears of high powers above-ground, but there’s also a specific part in the manga where some thugs dare to challenge Levi, and one of the citizens is like ‘boyz wtf are you doing, don’t you know who they (Levi’s gang) are??”. So we can safely assume they terrorize the city lol
>   4. He is def protective/possessive about the people he loves. He murders the people who hurt Isabel, and he refuses to let Furlan and Isabel go outside the walls, in order to protect them. It's also visible in the small things. At one point, for example (in the manga I think), a Survey Corps member talks back to Isabel, and Levi immediately goes in between them in a menacing way, to protect her.
> 

> 
> There's much more to say about him of course, but these are the main points I wanted to address. Exterior wise, he just has that same calm, cold, rude and mysterious/closed off vibe. I would say he probably swears a little more and is generally rougher because he hasn’t been tamed by the Survey Corps yet, so that's how I'll be writing him. I definitely won't write him as I would if he was in his captain days, because I believe being a captain in the Survey Corps for a decade changed him quite a bit. His revengeful mercilessness last chapter is something I don’t see him doing as a captain, for example.
> 
> Anyways, enough rambling. Thank you for reading, and hope you have a great day <3


	5. Under the Underground

You had stalked the loudmouth for many days while purposely avoiding the headquarters as much as possible. Though you know you’re a good spy, you preferred steering clear of the raven-haired savage as much as you could. Nothing you picked up seemed interesting at first. Insignificant robberies, vague deals with other gangs, the loudmouth’s _incredible success_ at conquering ladies who, in fact, did not exist. There was nothing that piqued your interest, nothing that could yield the money you needed, or that could help you circumvent the 3DMG problem. After nearly two weeks, you started to lose hope. You had been pickpocketing on the side, but as expected, it barely contributed to your end goal. Just a mere crumb to soothe your consciousness at best. Nothing was coming out of your spying work, and nothing significant was coming out of your side jobs.

It was then, the moment you were about to give up and rummage for a new plan, that you caught the whispers. _A new big heist in about a week_. Not only that, but it was going to happen right next to the infamous underground tunnels of this city. No one truly knows the history of these tunnels or why they’re there, all that is known is that most people refuse to set foot there. It is a place for shady deals and illegal trading, a place no normal citizen has any business wandering in. The darkness and complexity of these tunnels is all but welcoming, and it is mostly used as an inspiration to invent scary tales amongst children.

The idea of wandering in these caves didn’t have you particularly bubbling in delight, but you knew it would be a good solution to the flying-Levi problem. The huge tunnel network has many exits, meaning that if you entered those caves, Levi would have no idea where you would come out. You don’t know much about 3DMG, but you’re certain he wouldn’t be able to follow you with it in those corridors either.

This was the perfect opportunity, and maybe your only one.

You had one week to prepare. It wasn’t much, but you knew that if you worked day and night, you could get it done. Needless to say, it took you quite some self pep-talk.

_Cmon you can do it._

_If anything, the darkness will give you an advantage, you have eyes of an eagle compared to normal folk._

_Don’t be such a pussy._

_You’re not going to let that Levi fucker win, are you?_

_Stop being a baby, it’s just a bunch of corridors and tunnels._   
_….. pitch dark tunnels._   
_….. in which many people have disappeared._   
_….. and where only the shadiest thugs dare to set foot._   
_Okay but that’s not the **POINT.**_

Eventually, you somehow managed to scrape up enough courage to drag yourself into the caverns. The cold stone walls and the endless corridors made you beyond uncomfortable, and you wished nothing more than to return to the surface and crawl back to the safety of your own bed. This thought was particularly prominent whenever you came across corridors that ended in pitch-black darkness. Straight from a horror story, really. Your mind was constantly playing games with you, imagining demonic monstrosities waiting for you at the end of the tunnels. The scary tales you were told as a child about this place were definitely NOT helping. However, your determination was stronger than your fear, and you decided you didn’t have a choice anyway.

The first part of the plan was to discover and memorize the subterranean maze. You’re not going to lie, it was **terrifying** at first. You got lost many times, leaving you sobbing and praying to every existing deity that might hear you to _please_ spare you from dying in these dark tunnels alone. _Just not like this, **please.**_ Maybe those melodramatic pleads did something, because you always found your way back somehow. You found that if you just kept walking, you eventually ended up finding an exit. Though you never got to the point of being fully at ease, it all became less terrifying as you got more and more familiar with the tunnels. At one point, you even started to prefer the darker parts of the caverns compared to the well-lit areas. At least there, you knew you were safely hidden in the shadows. Not that this contributed to much, really, because there weren’t many people in the tunnels anyway. The times you did come across people, you heard them way before they could notice you. On two occasions, you came across drunk men wandering around for reasons you truly couldn’t fathom. _Good luck finding the exit, boys._ You once also caught a shady deal between two suspicious individuals. You would have loved to listen to what fucked up things they were up to, but quite frankly, you didn’t have the time.

It took you a little more than three days to memorize the tunnel network.

...Well, you didn't bother to memorize _everything._

Some areas were way too complex, so you just decided you'd have to steer clear of those parts during your mission. Still, the majority of the maze was memorized, which allowed you to decide on possible escape routes. Once that was done, you started with part two of the plan: setting traps.

Why traps? Well, there is a high chance that at least one of the men will start chasing you down. You’re a pretty fast runner, but you’re also fully aware that highly trained thieves such as the ones in Levi's gang are generally even faster. This doesn't form too much of a problem in the city, because you can use your surroundings to your advantage. In empty tunnels and corridors however, there isn’t much you can make use of. This means that in order to successfully guarantee your escape, you have to _create_ your advantages.

For this reason, you decided to create traps. The idea was to stack empty craters, barrels, and boxes on top of each other, and to wrap them in rope. The rope would allow you to easily pull at them and have the entire stack tumbling down. If someone is right behind you, it falls on them. If someone is at a further distance, it’s still useful, because the fallen boxes and barrels would form an obstacle to slow them down.

Once you had decided on all the strategic places you could possibly place your traps, it was time to actually bring them there. Much easier said than done, because _holy shit_ that was an absolute pain in the butthole. You’re not particularly the most muscular gal around, and dragging an endless amount of heavy wooden craters and barrels to the tunnels got your muscles aching for _days_. Not to mention that all the noise this was making had you completely on edge at all times. Oh, and let’s not even get **started** on when you actually had to stack the craters and barrels on top of each other. Yes, on multiple occasions, you slipped, and barrels and craters fell on top of you. And no, you don’t want to comment on how hilariously pathetic that must have looked, or on how this left a worrying number of bruises on your skin.

And now, after a week of blood, sweat and tears (quite literally), you are finally done. Just in time, really. Though the entire preparation has left you exhausted, you’re more than ready for what’s about to come.

From what you have gathered, this heist is going to be more… interesting than the last two. This time, Levi is actually going to send one of the poor bastards flying. Well, ‘poor bastards’ really isn’t the right word here. You have absolutely zero sympathy for the barbarians who are going to organize the trade this time, and honestly, you hope Levi will _accidently_ let his “ _victim_ ” fall. The traders are part of a sex trafficking business, and the money that is going to be exchanged during this trade is related to that. You don’t know the details, but you do know that the seller is from here, while the buyer is from above-ground.

You have always been vaguely aware of the fact that young women, and mainly orphans, are sold to rich men above-surface. A revolting, shady business that is hidden from the public, particularly from the outsiders. However, hearing about this human trafficking first-hand has made your stomach turn. You wish you could do something to protect the children and young adults who fall victim to this inhumane business, but there is nothing you can do. It has always infuriated you how the general public considers the Titans to be the only enemies, when in reality, there are just as many monsters inside the walls. Some of those brutes are contained within this city, as everyone knows, and others are sipping expensive wine in their grandiose gardens, hidden behind their excessive wealth. It is a horrendous vicious cycle: they keep this city poor and corrupt, and in turn, they can dehumanize the citizens and use them as they please.

Though these thoughts have been polluting your mind ever since you heard the details from the loudmouth, you keep forcing yourself to focus on your mission. There is no point in bringing your emotions into this, and at least you’re going to be able to rob them. It’s not much, it’s an insignificant contribution in the grand scheme of things, but you will gladly partake in their suffering.

The gang’s plan goes as follows. There will be four men doing the trade: the seller with his guard, and the buyer with his guard. The buyer is coming with a suitcase filled with bags of money. Apparently, it is common for buyers to open their suitcase in order to prove that it is filled with real, actual cash. Since it opens with an unknown code, the gang decided it would be easiest to attack the moment it is unlocked. Essentially, Levi will kidnap the man holding the suitcase the moment he opens it. As Levi will drag him across the sky, the bags of money will fall out. For the first time in your life, you will literally see _money falling from the sky._

You highly suspect Levi of coming up with this ludicrous plan for his own entertainment. After all, you’re sure it wouldn’t be too difficult to just kidnap the man and force him to give out the code. But no, evidently, they have to come up with this absurd plan to humiliate the traffickers further. Not that you’re complaining, you’re beyond amused at the thought of getting to see a screaming human-trafficker getting dragged through the sky whilst his precious bags of money fall out of his suitcase.

Absolutely ridiculous.

Evidently, the three remaining men won’t just peacefully stand by doing nothing, so three gang members are responsible of seizing them. The two remaining members will have the honor of collecting the fallen bags of money.

Well, two members plus you.

Are you ballsy or just crazy? Who knows, perhaps both. Your plan is to give them a little _helping hand_ while they collect the bags of cash. If you’re lucky, the three thieves who are responsible of keeping the traders hostage won’t dare to chase you down in fear of letting the traders escape. If you’re unlucky, they will just slit their throats and hunt you down. You don’t really know what they’re planning to do with these traffickers, but from what you’ve heard from the loudmouth, Levi is apparently not too keen on letting them live.

You will just have to hope luck will be on your side this time.

...................

**Faster. _GO FASTER._**

Your heart is painfully thumping against your ribs and your legs are burning, protesting against what you’re putting them through. You can already feel your muscles getting tired, most likely due to the exhaustion of the past week. The unreliability of your own body only increases your adrenaline and fear, and all you can hear are your loud heaving breaths and the thundering footsteps behind you.

Suddenly, there’s an additional sound. A distant metallic, zipping sound.

_Oh GOD not the fucking zipping sound._

Five men are sprinting behind you. Just as you had feared, three of them just killed the traffickers in cold blood, in favor of chasing you down. Though you can’t argue with the fact that the traffickers were monsters, you genuinely don’t know how to feel about all of them getting murdered at once because of _you_. The gang didn’t even give you the time to linger on this or to feel victorious about your sabotage. The heavy bag of money in your cape was instantly forgotten the moment they all decided to chase you down in unison. However, the five men aren’t the true reason why you’re so terrified. No, the real problem lies in the fact that you can already hear _him_ approaching.

 _He is coming to get you._ Coming to capture you just as he did with the bastard earlier.

Your eyes are fixed on the entrance of the caverns in front of you whilst you’re forcing your legs forward as fast as you physically can. The trade had occurred a bit further from the caverns than you had initially expected, and you’re honestly not so sure you’re going to make it anymore. With the distant sound of 3DMG approaching you by the second, you feel like you could combust from all the raging panic and adrenaline rushing through your body.

“ **She’s going straight to the tunnels!** ” you hear one of them yelling behind you. _Yeah, no shit_. And you don’t doubt Levi has already figured that out, and that he has no intentions of letting you go through with it.

You honestly don’t know if you have ever sprinted this fast before, because despite your exhaustion, your raging adrenaline somehow manages to get you to the entrance in only a couple of heartbeats. The sound of ODM gear is so close behind you now that there’s no way of telling if you’re actually going to make it. Gritting your teeth, you find no other alternative than to leap down the stairs, risking to break your neck in the process. Your heart sinks as you hear the metallic sound rushing right behind you, but it’s only as you’re painfully falling down the stairs that you realize he missed you. He missed you by only a hair. If you hadn’t risked to break your spine, he definitely would’ve caught you.

You’re panting on the ground, limbs aching from the fall, but relieved it worked. The taste of glory is short lived though, because you can already hear loud footsteps approaching the entrance at a rapid speed. Wincing in pain, you crawl back on your feet and push yourself forward.

The time this takes comes at a cost, because the five men are _right_ on your heels again. They are **way** too close, you realize in horror, and the panic that is rushing through you is making it hard to remember the routes you planned.

With a heaving chest and with heavy stumps echoing behind you, you try your hardest to still your panic and focus on the plan. After a few heartbeats, you manage to remember what you need to do next. You take a well-calculated turn to the right, and you frantically pull at the trap waiting behind the corner. You don’t even need to turn around to know it’s falling on one of your chasers, because the loud sound of tumbling craters is accompanied by angry grunts and cursing.

You continue running, and it takes a few moments before the thundering steps start echoing behind you again. The seconds you just won, however, are precious, because you are two corridors ahead now. This means they can’t see you anymore, and they can only go by the sound of your footsteps. You can already start to feel your speed decreasing because of your tired legs, but luckily, you took this into account when planning your route. You’re already at a new trap again, and you forcefully pull at it.

You keep running, taking unexpected turns and pulling at traps. Every time, the distance between you and your chasers increases.

To your relief, the cat and mouse game doesn’t last very long, because apparently, your obstacles are working even better than you had initially expected. You are so far ahead that you’re almost certain they won't be able to find you. Their angry voices are mere distant echoes at this point, and you can barely even decipher what they’re saying anymore.

You arrive at the darker parts of the tunnels. This is something you planned on purpose. After a good amount of running, you would fall back on your stealth. This is to regain your energy, and to make absolutely certain they will never be able to trace you back. As you slow down your pace, you try to control your heavy panting. If you want to be stealthy in the dark, you ought to relax your harsh breaths after all. Though it takes a frustratingly long time to relax, you eventually end up like a silent, sly cat.

You can’t afford to advance too slowly though. If you stay too long inside the caverns, the gang will have the time to call for backup. There is no doubt they would block all exits, and if that happens, you’re trapped.

Slightly on edge but with a focus as sharp as a blade, you keep slinking through the dark tunnels until you're almost at the exit. When planning your route, you purposely chose an exit that mouths into an extremely tight alley. It is so slim that you are about a hundred percent certain it’s impossible to fly through it using 3DMG. The alley is surrounded by tall abandoned buildings, one in which you have strategically hid clothes for a quick outfit switch. If you manage to get out of that building without being seen, there is no way they will find you again. Even if Levi scans the area from above, he won’t be able to recognize you, and you will simply blend into the crowd.

You can already see the light of the exit as you silently sneak through the last corridor. Before taking the final turn, however, you keep your back on the cold stone wall and strain your ears. You don’t hear anyone at the exit, and deem it safe. With a faint feeling of relief, you turn around the corner.

That’s when your heart _drops._

There is a shadow in front of the exit.

Though you can’t make out any facial features due to the contrasting city light behind them, you recognize the form in a heartbeat.

It’s **_him._**

_He is waiting for you._

You’re frozen in fear for a second, but you quickly come back to your senses and silently back down.

However, it’s too late. You suddenly hear Levi thundering towards you at an alarming speed. You almost let out a shriek of terror as you turn around and run back to the depths of the tunnels.

How the **fuck** did he know you were going to be there? You suppose you should’ve known that a sharp mind like his would be able to predict your thought process. The exit you chose was the safest considering your situation, and he must have realized that. You curse yourself for letting this detail slip past you. You underestimated him, _again._

Running for your life, you try to shake him off by taking unexpected turns, but to your horror, you notice he has absolutely no effort hunting you down. It’s as if every single time, he knows what your next movement will be. **_What the fuck is wrong with this guy?_**

You can feel nothing but blind terror as he keeps coming closer and closer. If you don’t do something soon, _he will catch you._

You suddenly realize where you are, and almost in a reflex, you take a calculated turn to the left. Without thinking, you reach for the trap waiting at the corner, and send it tumbling down. The loud scattering noises behind you echo in the dark halls as you keep forcing your legs forward. You decide to glance back for just a second, and you notice that he seems to crawl over your obstacle with surprisingly little effort. Still, it does slow him down a bit.

You are more than a corridor ahead before he gets back on his feet, and you take this opportunity to dart towards another trap. Levi has no choice but to crawl over it again, and with that, you manage to distance yourself even more. You continue running with every last bit of energy you have, but you can't seem to shake him off.

A sudden bolt of panic hits you as you realize you’re completely off track, and you’ve entered an area where you didn’t even bother to put traps. You're now running in one of the few extremely complex parts of the caves you swore yourself you would avoid at all costs. _You didn't even bother to memorize this place._

Without traps, he will catch up, and he will catch up _fast._

You have to think. **_THINK._**

But it's so hard to think when you're running for your life and a _predator_ is hunting you down, ready to consume your flesh. All you can think about is his footsteps echoing behind you, coming seemingly closer by the second.

As if driven by a natural survival instinct, you suddenly comes up with an idea. It draws upon you that you could actually _use_ this to your advantage. The tunnels are becoming much shorter and much more complex, but it could actually be your one and only way out this mess. The turns, the twists, the way the tunnels are short and mouth into each other in the most chaotic way... _perfect for hide and seek._

It's pitch-dark where you are, you can barely see your hands in front of you. You could fall back on your stealth again. Though he is relatively close, you are still a few short corridors ahead and he cannot see you, he can only locate you through sound.

And you can **remove** that sound.

You haven’t been running for too long, meaning you still have your breathing under control. If you’re sly enough, you can escape.

You decide to follow your instincts: you switch tactics and stop running the moment you reach the intersection of two short tunnels. There are three ways you can go, and if you're silent, he won't have a clue which way you went. You soundlessly slink into the right tunnel.

Dread starts to gnaw your insides as you hear his thundering footsteps coming closer and closer at an alarming speed, but you force yourself to keep going _slowly._ You need to be as silent as possible, or else it's over. You're already at the end of your tunnel anyway, with every turn you make, there's less of a chance he will find you.

You swallow thickly as you notice his steps come to a halt. Sweat begins to crawl down your spine as you realize he caught on. _He is switching to your tactic as well_. You close your eyes and focus on your hearing, but to no avail.

You hear nothing.

Fucking nothing.

Utter and complete silence, save for your pounding heartbeat.

Your hearing is better than the average, yet you can’t detect a single echoing sound coming from close by. Apparently, you’re not the only one who has a talent for silently sneaking around like a cat.

You’re not sure what’s scarier: hearing him sprinting behind you, or not hearing him at all.

...Definitely the latter. This shit makes you beyond uneasy.

You feel like a blind prey. You have no idea where your hunter is, and quite frankly, you have no idea how far his capabilities go. If you don’t get out of here soon, he will find you eventually.

With sweat tracing down your back, you slink forward, carefully distributing you weight in such a way to make no sound. Though this part of the caverns is an absolute maze, you do remember you’re quite close to an exit. Unfortunately, you have no idea how to get there. You just genuinely have no clue where you are. Though this is beyond concerning, not all hope is lost yet. The good thing about the extreme darkness is that you would notice the light of the exit once you’re relatively close by. You decide you have no choice but to keep going forward.

If you’re lucky, you’ll find the exit soon.  
If you’re not, well…

...Let’s not think about that for now.

You keep blindly slinking and creeping through the tunnels, consumed by complete darkness and quietness. It is beyond terrifying to aimlessly wander in a seemingly infinite, dark maze, and the only thing you can think about is what fate might lie ahead of you if luck decides to leave you hanging again. Every single time you take a random turn, you feel a spike of adrenaline rushing through you. _What if you accidentally bump into him?_

You close your eyes again and strain your ears, but you still can’t hear a thing. How long have you been sneaking around in silence? Ten minutes? More? 

_Fuck fuck FUCK._ Not only are you haunted by the fear of the unknown, having absolutely zero clue where Levi is at, but you're also starting to run out of time. If you don't get out soon, the gang members will be waiting at the exits. You had planned it all so well, yet everything is going so horribly wrong. You curse yourself for underestimating Levi again. This miscalculation might literally be the death of you.

A sudden jolt of hope hits you as you notice that the end of the tunnel isn't as dark as where you are now. There’s a light source. You’re close to the exit.

You follow the light with a newfound determination. Holding your heart, you continue sneaking towards your stairs of freedom, feeling more and more hopeful with every turn you take.

You recognize your environment again the moment you're nearly at the exit. A huge wave of relief washes over you as you silently slink through the tunnel that directly leads to it _._ Only a couple of meters forward, and the stairs will be directly on your right.

Suddenly, you feel hesitant. If Levi is waiting for you on the stairs of the exit, you’re dead. There is no way of seeing if someone is on the stairs from this angle, so you could be walking straight into a trap. Pursing your lips, you stop to listen intently.

You shriek in surprise as something flashes at you at full speed, exploding into a loud crashing sound right next to your ear. Your eyes widen in utter shock as you realize there’s a **knife** stuck on the wall, right next to your face. _**Your**_ throwable knife.

Your eyes flash towards where the knife came from, and you notice in horror how Levi is just standing there, frighteningly still, at the end of the corridor perpendicular to the one you’re in. He is a mere shadow in the darkness of the tunnel, a demon ready to take your life.

_He almost killed you._

You have no time to linger on this, because he suddenly approaches you at a rapid speed.

Body cold with dread, you try to jolt forward and run to the exit, but something pulls you back. In horror, you remember that the knife had stuck your cape against the wall. You try to pull again but it won’t budge.

Icy panic tears up inside of you as you hear his footsteps coming closer, and you have no choice but to quickly detach your cape. In one swift move, you take the money out of your pocket as well. You’re not going to lose that _again._

The extra second this takes is nearly fatal because he is _right_ behind you now. You can almost feel his breath in your neck as you’re running for your life, and you know he will catch you in any second from now.

Though it isn’t visible from this angle, you have purposely placed a trap on the stairs of every exit, which may be your only chance of escape.

By miracle, you manage to reach the stairs, but just as you swiftly turn around the corner and pull at the craters waiting there, you feel Levi's hand ruthlessly grabbing your arm. The craters almost crush you, but thanks to your momentum, they fall on him instead. The impact causes him to loosen his grip, and using all your force, you manage to pull away. With a panting chest and with raging adrenaline seeping through your veins, you frantically run up the stairs. Your heart is hammering so loudly in your ears that you almost miss the cursing coming from behind you. Something along the lines of “ _fucking cunt_ ”.

Without looking back once, you sprint towards your freedom and dart into the safety of the city.

...................

You’re collapsed on your couch, body completely limp from exhaustion.

What a fucking day.

After the heist, you had been creeping on your favorite secret spot to inspect the surroundings of your house for hours on end. Just the usual stuff. This time, however, you might have gone a little overboard. You waited for what, four hours? With how fucked up intense this mission was, you couldn’t help it. Can’t really be too careless honestly. Levi was pretty darn close behind when you left him on the stairs after all.

The hours of tensely waiting around had successfully sucked every last bit of energy you were carrying. You feel like an old, crusty drape now, lifelessly hanging over your couch. For the hundredth time, you let the events of the day flash through your mind. _Yep,_ you're going to have nightmares about that for weeks. It truly is scary how close you got to dying this time. You can't believe how that monster almost managed to brutally pierce your skull with your own damn knife.

Looking back, grabbing the money out of your cape was reckless as hell, but now, you’re so damn glad you did it.

Speaking of that, you haven’t even counted the money yet. You were too shaken up until now to even _think_ about your victory.

Your gaze darts towards the bag of cash sitting on your table. You reach for it, and sit yourself straight as you stare at the contents of the bag.

 _Holy shit._  
It looks like a lot again. Suddenly eager, you start counting the money.

 **Holy fucking lord** You can’t believe it. It’s so much more than you had expected. Together with the money of your first expedition, and the little bit of savings you still have from your side missions, you almost have enough to get your sister saved.

Tears of happiness and relief start rolling down your cheeks. Maybe it’s because you’re finally letting out the shriveling anxiety you've been feeling for the past ten hours, but you find yourself uncontrollably laughing and crying in disbelief.

You don’t even remember ever holding this much money. Maybe you’re blessed after all.

You know you shouldn’t cheer too soon because you still need to sabotage one more heist, maybe even two if you’re unlucky. Pretty bad situation considering how close things got today. But for now, you don’t care.

Because for the first time in ages, you’re entranced with a strong feeling of hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Few, well that was intense. We got really close there, didn’t we?
> 
> I think Levi might be even more pissed off now, woopsie
> 
> Brace yourselves for the next chapter, cause it’s gon be good hehe


	6. The Wolf's Den

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I only noticed after I wrote it, but for one small specific part of this chapter, I'm 99,8% sure my brain took inspiration from 'This usually doesn't happen' by DesertRose07 (chapter 3 to be more specific). An absolute masterpiece, so for those who haven't read it yet, go check it out!! :3
> 
> ~ Enjoy! ~

Your heavy eyelids slowly shutter open as you dazily wake up from your dream. You blink, and it takes you a couple of seconds to realize what woke you up.

_A noise._

You heard a noise.

And it was coming from your living room.

Suddenly alert, you focus your senses. You can’t hear anything anymore. Maybe it was just a sound coming from outside?

But your instincts are screaming that something is _off._

Trying to move as soundlessly as you possibly can, you sit yourself straight and grab the knife on your nightstand. You silently slip out of bed, and while tightly clasping your weapon, you slowly tiptoe towards the entrance of your living room. You hold your back against the wall, and carefully peep inside the room. It’s pitch dark, but you’re pretty sure you don’t see anything. Your gaze darts towards the front door. The heavy locks are still shut, meaning it’s impossible for someone to have entered through there. The only remaining possibility is that someone entered through your window. _Shit_. With how exhausted you were yesterday, there’s a chance you might have forgotten to lock it. You can't see your window from this angle, but if someone had opened it, surely, you would notice the city light coming through from outside? Maybe no one broke in after all?

But you can’t shake off the feeling that something is _wrong_.

You nearly jump when you hear a soft noise coming from the right corner of the living room, **extremely** close to you. You freeze, eyes widening in fear. You have to act NOW. Clasping your knife, you bounce forward, ready to attack the piece of shit who broke into your home.

You frown in surprise.  
… a scrunched up piece of paper on the floor?

That is the exact moment you realize you made a grave mistake. You fell _right_ into the trap. Before you can do anything, a brutal force from behind pushes you hard against the wall. A surprised squeal escapes your lips as you painfully crash into the cold surface.

“ _Got you._ ” a dark familiar voice whispers in your ear.

Ice-cold shivers of terror run down your spine when you recognize his voice. With both your hands pinned on the wall, you're unable to move. You tightly hold onto your knife with gritted teeth, refusing to let go of your only way of defense. This doesn’t last long, because Levi then decides to pull your wrists behind your back, twisting it to loosen your grip on your knife. He effortlessly confiscates it in a swift move, and to your horror, you feel him binding your wrists together behind your back. You desperately try to struggle away, but you barely even budge. Panting in panic, you frantically try to think of something.

There must be **something** you can do.

Maybe your neighbors can save you? If you even have neighbors to begin with. With nothing else left to do, you let out a loud, sharp scream for help.

“Oi, shut the _fuck_ up.” he hisses through his teeth as he muffles your cries using his hand over your mouth. You try to bite his flesh, but in an eyeblink, he removes his hand and puts a piece of cloth over your mouth instead. Your eyes widen in disbelief as you feel him tightening the tissue into a knot at the back of your head.

You pause for a moment, trying desperately to think of anything that could save you from this hell. But you can’t come up with **one** single idea. There’s absolutely nothing you can do. You’re completely powerless.

You suddenly realize how extremely vulnerable you are. Your hands are tied behind your back, you mouth is tied shut, and the only thing you’re wearing is a thin white tank top, and small black underwear. You’re not wearing a bra, which renders your breasts quite... visible. You swallow thickly as you feel Levi's entire body pushing against your half naked body.

This can’t be real, right? This has to be a nightmare?

As if the universe wanted to add to your misery, you suddenly feel a piece of cloth robbing your vision. _Oh great_ , he’s blindfolding you now.

You try to protest, but only a muffled sound comes out. What in the actual fuck is he even planning to do with you??

He turns you around and throws you over his shoulder in one swift move.

**What is he-?**

“Don’t try any dirty little tricks, brat. I won’t hesitate to drop you down.” he warns coldly. “But hey, if you prefer falling to your death, that’s fine by me too.”

Your breaths accelerate as you finally truly realize Levi is going to kidnap you.

Though it is not exactly the most _urgent_ matter at hand, it draws upon you that he is about to drag you out in public while you’re tied and almost naked. You want to protest, but you are reminded once again of the tissue tightly covering your mouth.

A dreadful feeling forms in your stomach as he starts to walk.

**_This can’t be fucking happening._ **

You suddenly feel him covering your body with a piece of fabric. Though he might just be doing this to draw less attention onto himself, it is still a surprisingly wholesome act considering he is about to **brutally murder** you. The faint feeling of relief this renders quickly washes away when you feel him crawling through your window, and lifting both of you from the solid ground at high speed.

With the wind aggressively blowing through your hair, you try to guess which direction you’re going to. You quickly give up though, as you honestly have no clue. Raw terror starts to swell inside of you as the gravity of your predicament begins to sink in. You don’t want to _know_ what he is going to do to you. If he wanted to kill you, he would’ve done that in your room.

No, what he’s going to do to you is definitely much worse.

You can hear him say the words again.

_“I know they’d **love** to get their hands on the little pest that’s been disrupting our plans. I could use the laugh anyway.”_

You think about the fuming rage on his men’s faces as they were chasing you. In your defense, you just did the exact same thing they did, but you know they won’t see it that way. Not only did you snatch ‘their’ money right in front of them multiple times, but you also put them at more risk as they had to focus on you. You suppose it’s also a direct attack to their dignity as thieves. A group of so-called vicious thieves getting robbed by one single woman, a little embarrassing. Not to mention you managed to wound Levi multiple times.

Yeah you fucked up.

You should’ve known he would manage to follow you. You thought your trap had given you enough time to disappear into the city, but apparently, luck was not on your side. Still, how did he follow you all along without you noticing _once_? And more importantly, how the _hell_ did he find out where you sleep? It doesn’t make sense. Not only does this mean he had to break into your small apartment in utter and complete silence, but it also means he found the secret hole in your closet. _**How?**_ It is so well hidden, and it honestly just looks like proprietary damage? What kind of fucking bloodhound is this man? Not to mention you had surveilled your area for **four** hours. Was he just observing you all along without you noticing?

_Fuck fuck **FUCK.**_

You greatly underestimated him, for the hundredth damn time. You suppose you should’ve known he isn’t the type to let his prey get away. And now you’re brutally going to pay the price. You’re mercilessly being dragged straight into the wolf’s den, and you don’t even want to begin to _think_ about what fate lies ahead of you.

Your rambling thoughts of dread are suddenly put on a hold when you feel the ground under you steadying. _Shit._ You hear the sound of keys turning inside a lock, and the next moment, you’re harshly thrown on the floor. You wince in pain as you have no way to break the impact of the fall. Unsure of what to do, you sit up and anxiously wait for what’s about to come next.

Through your blindfold, you see that the lights are being switched on.

You hear the sound of straps, and metallic objects clinging against each other.

 **Fuck.** Is he preparing his torturing gear?

It takes you a few moments to convince yourself that he’s probably just putting off his 3DMG. _You’ll be okay. Calm down. Everything is going to be alright. You’ll get out of here somehow._

You listen intently. There’s no other sound, meaning you’re definitely alone with him in this room. You’re not sure whether that makes it all better or worse.

After what seems like ages, you hear him slowly stepping towards you. Sharp fear jolts in your stomach, but you manage to fight the urge to crawl away. You then feel him untying both knots behind your head. The sudden light blinds you, and you have to blink a couple of times before your eyes adjust. You swallow thickly before looking up and meeting his gaze, only to see him staring you down with a terrifyingly cold expression.

“W-Where am I, why did you bring me here?” you manage to ask with a raspy voice.

He gently brings his hand under your chin and softly pushes it up, making you face him directly. The contrast between his deadly gaze and the unexpected softness of his touch makes your breath hitch.

“Somewhere no one will give a fuck about your screams and cries for help.” he answers coldly.

You jolt back out of his grip with a sharp gasp. Possessed by raw fear, you crawl back until you’re stopped by the wall behind you. You look at him with a pounding heart, unable to hide the terror in your expression. He just silently stares back at you with a cold, dangerous gaze. Though he is incredibly hard to read, you can _feel_ his anger. You know he absolutely _despises_ you.

You quickly scan your surroundings, hoping for something that could help you get out of this nightmare. To your disappointment, you find that the room is nearly empty. There’s just a wooden table on the side of the room, an armchair, and the tissue he had wrapped around you. Turns out that this tissue is a blanket he took from your room, and you can only guess it fell on the floor when he harshly threw you on the ground.

Your gaze darts down, reminding you once again that you’re just in underwear. You gulp as you notice that the fabric of your tank top is even thinner than you remember, making the form of your hardened nipples _clearly_ visible.

Fucking wonderful.

You look up at him, and you watch him slowly scouring you from top to toe. Taking in every inch of your body, his gaze ascends from your eyes... to your lips... to your collarbones… to your waist… down to your legs. His eyes then slowly climb back to meet yours. This mere act makes your heart pound even faster, and you can feel the adrenaline uncomfortably spiking inside your veins. There’s something intense about his gaze, a fire burning in the dark. At the same time, though, his expression is filled with indescribable coldness. A strange paradox you can’t quite place.

Keeping your gaze locked, he swiftly slides his tongue over his teeth, like a wolf licking his canines before devouring its trapped prey. The sight alone causes cold shudders to run through your body.

He slowly starts to approach you.

“What game do you think you’re playing, huh?” he asks menacingly while taking a step forward.

“Three. _Fucking._ Times you had to stick your filthy nose where it doesn’t belong.” The wooden floor creaks underneath him as he takes another step forward.

“Tell me, do you have a death wish? A fetish for getting brutally murdered?” He’s even closer now, looking alarmingly similar to a blood thirsty wolf closing in on its prey before the slaughter.

With every step he takes towards you, your panic increases tenfold. Your fight or flight instincts are _screaming_. You don’t know where to go, but you need to run, NOW. There is a room next to this one, maybe there’s another exit there? A window? A weapon? ANYTHING. Without even thinking it through, you bounce on your feet and try to escape to the room next to you.

Unsurprisingly though, Levi is much faster and slams you against the wall, his hand clenched around your throat.

“You actually thought that was going to work? Cute.” The corners of his lips curl up into a barely visible, sadistic smirk.

“What do you want from me?” you snarl.

“Do you know what we do to little _pests_ like you?” he asks, tilting his head to the side.  
He comes closer until his mouth hovers over your ear. Your pulse rapidly increases when you feel the warmth of his breath, and every movement of his lips.

“We _eliminate_ them.” he whispers darkly.  
You bite your lip to keep yourself from whimpering.

He brings his face back to look straight into your eyes, and his cold, silver orbs make your heart shrivel in dread.

“I’m not sure what the fuck you think you’re doing, but I do **not** have the patience to deal with it.” he grunts. His cold hands tighten around your throat, making you struggle for air. As you’re suffocating and panicking, your eyes dart towards his jaw. You can still see the faint scar of the cut you gave him with your blade. _What have you done._

You’re frantically trying to get out of his grip, but it’s impossible. With your hands tied behind your back, there is nothing you can do. He narrows his eyes and holds his hand steady, observing you pathetically gasping for air. No one has ever looked at you with such pure _**venom**_ , and if it wasn’t for the natural panicking state of your body, you would probably cry at the mere fact this is the last thing you will see before you die.

Suddenly, he decides to let you go. Your legs almost collapse as he turns around and walks away from you, leaving you panting with your back against the wall.

“But first, I have a couple of questions.” he announces, sounding completely unfazed, as if he didn’t just nearly choke you into unconsciousness a second ago. He calmly steps towards the armchair sitting in the middle of the room, and turns it around to face you.

“Depending on how you cooperate, I might make this all a little… easier for you.” he continuous while sliding into the chair. He leans back, making himself comfortable as he scrutinizes you with his gaze. His head is cocked to the side as he observes you with his ankle resting on his knee.

How generous. You now have the choice between slowly getting tortured to death, or between quickly getting your throat slit. Not to mention that while you have to wait for your inevitable doom, this monster gets to degrade and interrogate you in your most vulnerable state. You can’t even hide your chest because your hands are tied. Instead, you just have to stand there, fragile, and as exposed as ever.

“Let’s start with the basics” he sighs. His expression looks bland and bored again. “Who the fuck are you?”

For some reason, you can’t get the words out of your mouth. You’re frozen in place, still overwhelmed by everything that’s happening.

“Oi, are you deaf?” he snarls, “What’s your **n a m e**?”

You immediately mutter your name, almost in a whisper.

“Okay, **_(F/N)_** ,” he pronounces your name like it’s a curse, “I’ll go straight to the point. Who the actual **fuck** told you it was a good idea to keep pulling those dirty little stunts of yours? Do you work for someone? Or are you just mentally challenged?” He looks almost disgusted.

“I needed the money.” you reply coldly, ignoring his insult.

He narrows his eyes. “Oh? is the good ol’ pickpocketing not good enough for you, princess? You need to sabotage heists for that?”. His voice is seeping with dry mock and sarcasm.

You pause for a moment. You’d die in the pits of hell before letting this brute know about Luna’s existence. You have no idea how far his or his men’s thirst for revenge will go, so you absolutely cannot risk it.

“I owe money to some people.” you end up saying, the first lie that comes into your head.

He narrows his eyes again. It feels like he’s observing every part of your body language to find out whether you’re actually telling the truth.

“Is that so? What do you own money for?” he asks with a suspicious tone.

_Fuck. He knows._

“It’s none of your business.” you state firmly.

“Does this look like a cozy little afternoon chat to you? **TALK,** brat.” he demands. He is clearly starting to get pissed off again.

Your mind races for a new lie. You have to think of something. ANYTHING. But he’s too good at detecting lies, and knowing this makes it ten times more difficult to come up with a new one.

He seems to realize what is going on in your mind, because he suddenly bounces off his chair and stalks towards you.

You gasp in surprise as he forcefully grips you by the nape of your neck, yanking your head close to his.

“Who the **FUCK** do you actually think I am?” he growls menacingly. “You think I don’t see you probing for new lies?”

Before you can react, he slips his hand to the back of your hair in one swift move. You barely process what is happening as he grabs a fistful of your locks and forcefully shoves you down to your knees, earning a surprised yelp from you as your legs crash onto the floor. Using his clasped hand in your hair, he yanks your head back, forcing you to look up into his murderous eyes. He is _boiling_ with rage now, and the dominance he is exerting is so overwhelming that your mind completely shuts off. He single-handedly reduced you to a scared, trembling prey, and all you manage to do is cower in fear.

“I’m not LYING” you screech helplessly.  
“I… I own someone money, okay? _Please,_ you have to believe me.” Your breaking voice and trembling lips betray that you’re on the verge of tears.

You’re actually being honest here. You **_do_** own someone money. You own money to your sister. She may not be _asking_ it from you, but to you, you own it to her. In a flash, you suddenly see her in front of you again. Pale and weakened, her joy and energy disappearing by the day.

Before you can stop it, a tear escapes your eye. You bite your lip at a futile attempt to stop other tears from escaping. _Shit._ WHY do you have to break down now, of all times? You absolutely hate looking this vulnerable, especially in front of _him_.

He slightly narrows his eyes again, but his grip softens.

Silence then befalls the room. His softer grip allows you to look down, and you use this to close your eyes and make an attempt at controlling your respiration again. Aside from your hasty breaths and occasional sniffs, the room is consumed by utter and complete quietness. You’re well aware of his gaze lingering on you as you try to calm down, and it’s not making your task any easier.

“Alright then.” he finally says after a long pause. You’re taken aback by the unexpected softness of his voice. “I’ll believe you for now.”

What messes you up the most in this interrogation is THIS. The alternation between violence and tenderness. The soft touches and the whispers in your ear, followed by the violent man handling. You don’t know what it is, but it makes you want to cave and obey. It secretly awakens something deep within you that you would prefer to _**never**_ address or admit. You’re not sure if he is doing this all on purpose, but if he does, it’s definitely working.

Biting your lip, you scrape up just enough courage to look at him and meet his gaze again. He's intently looking down at you, his eyes an eerie color against the dim lighting of the room. You swallow thickly and feel your heartbeat slowly accelerating again. You don’t know what it is, but the eye contact is getting more and more... _intense._ The murderous bitterness in his eyes has disappeared and it’s changing into something else, but you don’t know exactly what. There’s almost a certain softness to it, but also a burning intensity you can’t quite place. All you know is that for some reason, you find his gaze to be hypnotizing.

Maybe it’s because of your sudden emotional vulnerability, having let your sadness and pain reach the surface. Maybe it’s because of your physical vulnerability. After all, you’re almost naked and kneeled in front of him while tied up. You’re painfully aware of how every part of your body is exposed as you’re looking up at him, and you can only hope your face doesn’t reveal that he has successfully pushed you into utter and complete submission.

Whatever it is, something in his expression has changed, and it’s as if in the insanity of it all, you’re both suddenly entranced and hypnotized by each other.

You have no idea how long you’ve been staring at him, and you have no idea why you’re drowning in his silver irises, but you can’t seem to look away.

After a long moment of silence, he slowly lets your hair go. He then gently brings his hand to your face, and you feel your entire body tingling as he traces his fingers down your jaw with agonizing slowness. You find yourself unable to move, completely electrified by his touch. He then slides his hand up to your cheek to softly wipe your tears away. Without breaking eye contact, he glides his fingers towards your chin, gently pushing it up for you to face him better. You don’t even feel your environment anymore at this point, you’re completely out of it. All you can see is blue silver orbs consuming you. A warm shudder runs through your body as you feel his thumb slowly moving to your bottom lip, softly caressing it.

You’re suddenly jolted back into reality when you hear something approaching the door. You seem to both hear it at the same time, as his eyes quickly dart towards the source of the sound. A second later, you hear a knock.

From one moment to the other, the magic spell is broken. He brings his hand down and turns around to open the door.

You blink in confusement. _What the hell just happened?_

“Eyy Levi!” you hear a loud enthusiastic voice that you vaguely recognize. “I’ve got some news abou-“

The tall, brown-haired man at the door stops mid-sentence as he notices you: on your knees, tied up, in underwear, and wearing a thin tank top that does a _terrible_ job at hiding your forms. His eyebrows arch up in surprise, but this is immediately replaced by an evil smirk.

“Didn’t know you were into that sort of thing as well, good taste you got there.” he purrs while devouring you with his eyes. His hungry grin broadens as he quickly scans you up and down.

_Yikes._

He is quickly interrupted by Levi grabbing him by the collar and yanking him behind the door, out of your eyesight. You sigh in relief, glad that Levi at least stopped the guy from further assaulting you with his eyes. You try to listen to their conversation, but it seems to be nothing of use to you.

With Levi and that pervert behind the door, you realize you're alone. This might be your one and only chance of escape. You hesitate for a second, but then decide to get on your feet. Heart pounding in your chest, you tiptoe towards the other room, doing your very best to avoid the wooden floor from creaking underneath you.

In your disappointment, you notice that the room is almost as empty as the living room. There are only two old couches and one empty small table. There’s also a window, but you highly doubt you would ever be able to reach it and crawl through it with your hands tied. Your eyes dart around, desperately looking for a knife or something sharp that you could use to free your hands.

“Where the **fuck** do you think you’re going?”

_Shit._

Before you can even react, you feel Levi’s arm grabbing your waist and dragging you back to the living room. You try to struggle yourself free, but his grip is too strong. You think about the door. Though he managed to sneak up on you, you’re pretty sure you hadn’t heard the door getting locked, or even getting shut for that matter. This means that if you somehow manage to escape from his grip now and slow him down, you might be able to escape. You decide to kick his leg at an attempt to break free. It may not be _the best_ idea to physically assault him again, but if you don’t succeed at breaking free now, you’re most likely going to die. You have nothing left to lose anyway.

At this, he stops and harshly pushes you onto the table next to him. One moment, you’re sitting with your legs dangling around each side of his hips. The next, you feel a cold hand forcefully gripping your throat. In an eyeblink, he slams your head down on the hard, wooden surface. The brute impact causes your vision to blacken and a sharp gasp to fill your lungs. You wince and whimper in pain. It feels like he might have just cracked your skull open. Disoriented and dizzy, you have to blink a couple of times before you come back to your senses. As your vision focusses again, your eyes meet his. He is hunched over you, his face hovering right above yours.

Whatever that was earlier, it’s completely gone. His eyes are spewing venom again.

“Listen up, you little shit.” he hisses angrily. “My patience is running REAL fucking thin here. Either you start cooperating, or I wrap this little interrogation session up in a very… unpleasant way.”

Is he just going to murder you in cold blood after this? Everything about him suggests he wouldn’t hesitate. All the rumors surrounding him, combined with the fact he is, of course, a criminal gang leader. Nobody gets to that position with a soft heart. Nobody reaches that level of respect if they’re the type to let others walk over them. He is beyond dangerous, Gary made that very clear, and you know nobody has ever gotten away with challenging him. Additionally, it’s not even like you only got one chance. You’ve been warned before, and you didn’t listen because you underestimated him.

Never mind the fact you can _see_ in his eyes that he would be perfectly capable of murdering you on the spot.

How will he do it? Will he strangle you? Will he slit your throat? Something more brutal? Or maybe he’ll just put your faith into the hands of his revenge-thirsty men? For some reason, you can’t get yourself to imagine he will go through with it. There **has** to be a way to convince him to spare your life, right? The way he looked at you earlier must mean something.

…right?

You’re snapped out of your thoughts by impatient fingers clicking in front of your face.  
“HEY. **_Focus_** , brat.”

You suddenly realize he has been talking all along, but you weren’t listening at all.

“I’ll cooperate. Just ask your questions.” you mumble, managing to make your voice sound surprisingly calm.

You _would_ answer his questions, but you would have to leave your family secret out of it, as this could definitely endanger Luna and Finn. People would do anything for the large sum of money the military police are willing to pay.

He squints his eyes and observes you for a moment, as if to find out whether you’re actually planning on cooperating, or if you’re just going to waste his time again. In a moment of silence, you become aware of his slow, relaxed heartbeat against yours. Good to know this situation doesn’t have him agitated in the _slightest_. The fucking psychopath. You’re then becoming increasingly aware of the warmth of his body against yours, his hard muscles resting on your stomach, your thighs around his waist, and his soft breath brushing against your cheek. This physical contact makes you even more nervous, and you feel your cheeks warming up.

You mentally kick yourself. _Disgusting_. You should **at least** be revolted by the physical contact of your soon-to-be-murderer, not be flustered by it. What the actual fuck is wrong with you?

 _‘A fetish for getting brutally murdered’._ Apparently so. **Yikes**.

Luckily, he decides to let you go. He stands up straight again and looks down at you. “That was your last warning.” he murmurs menacingly.

With a deep sigh, he turns around and slides into his armchair again. Not bothering to turn the chair around, he doesn’t face you this time. Instead, he stares into the distance in front of him.

As your heartrate slowly starts to steady again, you sit yourself straight and observe him. You wish your hands were free so that you could hold your legs closely against your chest, but sadly, things aren’t _particularly_ going as you like today.

“How did you know about our plans?” he asks with a flat tone, as he stares into the nothingness in front of him.

“One of your boys is very loud. Brown hair, slightly crooked nose. I followed him around, didn’t take me long to find out all the details of your heists.” you answer.

“Hmm… Boris huh? Figured he’d be an issue.” he mumbles as he strokes his fingers over his lips.  
You almost feel bad for outing the guy like that, you were starting to like his loud ass.

“I’ll ask this again. Who do you work with?”

“No one. I’m alone.” you answer calmly.

He side-eyes you for a moment.

“I don’t buy it.” he finally responds.

He reaches for his pocket and takes out your circular tri-blade. Your eyebrows lift up in surprise. You didn’t expect him to actually think about grabbing that when the building was collapsing.

“What the hell is this?” he asks while studying it. “Either you have some high-end connections who provide you with expensive gear, or you have enough cash to collect fancy weapons by yourself. Both options don’t really scream ‘I’m alone and in dire need of money’, now do they?”

“I made it myself.” you respond dryly.

“Oi, do you want me to give you another concussion or what?” he snarls.

“I’m telling the truth.” you say firmly. “My dad was a weapon manufacturer. He mainly made knives and throwables as a job. He taught me, so now I design weapons myself for my own use. It doesn’t cost me a cent because he left all the necessary materials behind. You can go to my place and check it out if you want. It’s all in my basement: angle grinders, drills, stacks of steel, and so on. If you don’t want to leave me here, you can ask one of your men to check it out. I have nothing to hide.”

“Let’s say I believe you, which I don’t,” he replies steadily, “Care to explain why you own two buildings then? What the hell is that about? A secret hole in your closet, really?”

 _Shit._ How do you even begin to explain that? You absolutely cannot say anything about your family name, but since he is so good at detecting lies, it’s better to stick to the truth as much as possible.

“It’s because of my parents. They were criminals pursued by the military police, so they made sure no one knew where we truly lived. I’m sure you can understand. You’re my perfect example of why it’s best to hide your sleeping place, though it didn’t seem to work on you.” Your last sentence comes out way more bitterly than intended, but he doesn’t seem to care.

“Are both your parents dead?” he asks with a stoic expression.

You’re slightly taken aback by the bluntness of his question, but you nod. “They got murdered.” You feel a pain in your chest as you say the words out loud.

He observes you for a moment. “What did they do to get hunted by the MP's? They barely dare to set foot in this place, and it's rare for them to hunt criminals down, so why your parents?”

You instantly regret mentioning the military police. He is right, it _is_ suspicious. You would’ve thought about this if you weren’t so busy focusing on hiding how nervous you are. If he wasn’t so good at reading you, you’re sure you would be able to keep a cool head and answer strategically. However, he seems to have a great impact on your focus, which might lead to your doom if you’re not careful.

You quickly come up with a vague answer before he has the chance to notice your hesitation. “They never told me. Probably to protect me or themselves.” you mumble. A shitty answer, and you really don’t like where this conversation is going.

He observes you intently, and you can feel his eyes burning holes through your skin. He is definitely foraging for lies again. You’re not sure whether you’re a terrible liar or whether he is some sort of lie detecting machine, but you need to stop this NOW. You really don’t want him to pry about your parents ‘crimes’, and neither do you want him to ask about the true motives behind your stealing. You need to turn this conversation around as soon as possible. You also have to find a way for him to spare your life. You need to seem useful to him _somehow._

A sudden idea pops into your head, and the words escape your mouth before you can stop them.

“I want to join your gang.” Your voice is surprisingly calm compared to the absolute storm that is thundering within you.

Flabbergasted, he stares at you like you just said the dumbest thing he’s ever heard.  
“Were you dropped as child?”

You would probably be amused at his reaction if it wasn’t for the gravity of the situation. All you can think about is that this might be your one and only chance to convince him to spare your life. You have to play your cards right, or else, it will be over.

You know you fucked up, and you know he won’t let you get away with it easily. Not just because he probably doesn’t trust you, but also because he really doesn’t strike as the type to ever let anyone walk over him. However, if you can somehow convince him that you will be useful to them, he might spare you. Even if it’s just for a couple of missions. You also know it’s important to show him you truly _want_ to join his gang. If it doesn’t seem useful for the both of you, he won’t trust you. He’ll think you will just act like a slave for a short time, and then get out when the first chance arises. But if you make a _deal_ , it might work.

You look at him with newfound determination. “I really need the money, and I know I can be a useful asset to you. We could both benefit from it, I could help you. I could make personalized weapons for you and your men, and I’m sure I’m decent enough for whatever heists you make. Not only was I able to sneak around for weeks without anyone noticing, but I was able to outrun the rest of your guys. If it wasn’t for you, I probably would have never been caught in the first place. Surely, I can be useful to you?”

Your speech earns you a raised brow.

“A lot of confidence for a pathetic little runt.” he responds with an unimpressed look. The slight mocking undertone in his voice makes your blood come to a boil.

 _Oh, fuck off_. Is that everything he has to say??

You can see his lips threatening to curl into a dark smirk. He clearly enjoys watching you struggle as you try to hide your irritation.

You both know that if you let this anger get the better of you, you’re finished. You’re **not** going to let that happen, so you take a deep breath and continue.

“Look, I robbed from you guys because that was my only way of participating in a big heist. I mean, you know much better than I do that it yields a lot more than robbing people on the streets. Thing is that I just couldn’t do it alone. But if you would let me join, there would no reason for me to ever stand in your way again. And most importantly, it would be beneficial for you too. Think about it, I could help you. I could make anything you want: crossbows, throwables, knives, you name it. These tools are expensive and hard to get by, and I will provide it all for you if you just let me help you doing your heists. You’ve seen my capabilities, I’m sure I can be a helping hand.”

“And why exactly are you talking as if you’re in any position to demand a favor from me?” he asks nonchalantly without missing a beat.

You clench your fists behind you in frustration. _He is doing this on purpose_. He is intentionally ignoring everything you’re saying, scrutinizing you to see to what level of desperation you’ll allow yourself to sink. You wish you could strangle the shithead on the spot.

“I’m not, I just…” you’re desperately looking for the right words, but this is simply greeted by a bored, unimpressed stare.

_Fucks sake._

With a defeated sigh, you decide to push all your pride aside. Honestly, you don’t have that much pride left anyway.

“ **Please** , I can prove myself.” you plead.

“I know you’re hiding something. And I don’t trust people who are _this_ desperate for a large sum of money anyway.” he responds with a dismissive wave. He’s not even looking at you anymore.

“You know where I live, if I don’t cooperate you can come in and slit my throat if you want.” you mumble darkly.

His eyes snap back to you. “How do I know you won’t try to do the same?”

For a second, you’re not sure how to answer his question.  
“I’m not a murderer.”

He frowns. “All these weapons and you’ve never killed anyone before?”

“No.” you reply, almost in a whisper.

A long silence follows. He observes you intently, going over every detail of your face. It seems he is trying to read you again. After a few moments, he lets out a heavy sigh and looks away, indicating that he decided to believe you. The honesty in your voice was blatantly obvious, after all.

The next few moments, he looks completely lost in thought. You wonder if he is thinking about all the people he _has_ killed before. Has he ever regretted it? Is he just a cold-blooded murderer or does he ever feel something? There is something strangely paradoxical about all of this. He softly caressed your cheek and wiped your tears away with the same hand he has stabbed or strangled multiple people to death with. Those eyes you were drowning in a moment ago, are the last thing some people have seen before they died.

_You can’t end up like them._

“I’ll redeem myself. Just please don’t… get rid of me yet.”, a euphemism for **killing** , “I’ll be useful to you guys, that’s a promise I’m making to you”. Your voice is so soft that it almost comes out as a whisper.

He still doesn’t look at you.

“Please”, you beg, “I’ll do whatever you want.”

“Is that so?” His eyes are still fixed on a distant point in front of him, but you don’t miss the slight hint of interest, and maybe even amusement in his voice.

_Wait, amusement?_

Deciding you won’t let this intimidate you, you keep pushing. “Yes. Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”

His eyes flicker up to yours, and you’re almost certain there’s a sinister smirk threatening to reach surface.

 **Oh God.**  
It’s as clear as day. He might as well have told you flat out. He is _relishing_ at the thought of using you and making you suffer.

Before you can further analyze the satisfaction he gets out of this power play, he looks away from you again. He is longingly staring in front of him now, clearly weighing his options.

The deadly silence that follows is eating you up inside. He is impossible to read, and you have no idea in which direction his thoughts are going. Just when you’re convinced he has decided to put an end to you after all, he speaks up.

“Alright. I’m willing to test it out.”

Your mouth gapes open in surprise. You hear the words, but you have a hard time believing them.

It actually worked? He is keeping you alive?

He side-eyes you, and something in his gaze tells you your victory might not be as sweet as you may think.

“I’m warning you, I don’t trust you at all. If I see **one** slip-up, **one** suspicious movement, **one** thing that doesn’t please me, I’ll gladly finish you with my own two hands.” His voice is as cold as stone, and the danger that suddenly radiates off of him makes your breathing come to a stop.

You swallow. You know he means every word of it.

He quickly looks you up and down, and beckons you over with two fingers. "Come here."

You frown.

“Oi, didn’t you _just_ say you’d do whatever I want? Don’t make me regret my decision now, runt.”

At that, you quickly get off the table and stop right next to him.

“Turn around.” he orders.

You do, and to your relief, he just unties you. You’re not really sure what you thought he was going to do, but you’re just glad he decided to stop playing games for now.

“Now take that blanket of yours and get the fuck out.” he commands without even bothering to spare you a glance.

Obediently, you do as he says, and you walk out of the door barefoot without looking back once, blanket tightly wrapped around your entire body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOW ARE WE FEELING AFTER THIS CHAPTER FOLKS? I hope you all enjoyed getting busted by Levi hehehe. I sure did >◡>
> 
> Looks like we got ourselves into a big mess here, oops
> 
> Have a wonderful week (and wonderful holidays if you celebrate them), and see you next chapter<3
> 
>  **Image credits:**  
>  1) Screenshot from AOT: No Regrets.  
> 2) from AOT: No Regrets. Edit found on pinterest. (Original link just relays to a hashtag on tumblr so unfortunately I have no idea whose edit it is)


	7. Sweet Innocence

You groan in protest the moment you wake up and open your eyes. You just want to be asleep again, safely tucked inside your dream, protected from the fuckfest that has become your life. To your dismay, the events of this night won’t stop flashing before your eyes. Somewhere, you hope it was just a nightmare, but the bruises on your knees and your piercing headache beg to differ.

You’ll never forget to lock that damn window anymore.

You can’t believe it. You’re going to be part of the gang now, under the direct scrutiny of your _arch nemesis_. Though it seems you successfully convinced him of your use, you don’t doubt for a second he will purposely make your life much more difficult than necessary, and **feast** on your suffering. You genuinely don’t know what to think about all of this. Are his intentions genuine? Does he truly think you’ll be a useful asset? Or is he just keeping you alive as his personal play-toy?

The way he looked at you during your breakdown _-or whatever the hell happened then-_ indicates that deep down, he feels at least a slight bit of sympathy for you. Still, there’s no way of telling whether this will be enough for him to spare you some mercy.

Let’s not even **begin** about the rest of the gang. How lovely, joining a bunch of brutes who hate your guts, because _that is going to end well_. As their leader, only Levi may be able to tame their anger, meaning that once again, your life is entirely in his hands. Wonderful. It really does seem like the universe has been holding a grudge against you lately.

Somewhere, though, you try your best to see things in a more positive light. There might still be a little bit of hope. Yes, it could all go terribly wrong, but maybe, just maybe, it will be okay? If you can somehow prove that you’re on their side, if you can gain their respect and trust, there’s a small chance it might actually turn your life around for the better. Maybe you’re getting way ahead of yourself here, but what if they aren’t as terrifying as they seem? What if they still have a sense of humanity somewhere? If so, having a group of people around you might not be so bad. If you can somehow manage to fit in and get them to like you, it might ease the loneliness you’ve been feeling the past couple of years.

You’re not exactly sure when that loneliness started to creep into your life, but you suspect it began when you distanced yourself from your childhood friends. You slowly pushed them away after your parents died, as you were honestly too busy mourning their deaths and providing for yourself and your sister. More importantly, you didn’t trust anyone anymore. You highly suspected that someone snitched your parents to the MP’s, and you thought it was probably a friend of theirs, someone close. Who else could have known? This had greatly impacted your will to socialize, leading you to slowly become unfamiliar with all the kids in your area. It didn’t help that many of them got into shady lifestyles, or disappeared completely.

You’re not alone, you know that. You got Luna, Finn and Gary, and you know they love you dearly. However, you all live very separate lives, and quite frankly, you’re alone the vast majority of the time. It is your own choice though, you’re quick to isolate yourself as a method of self-protection. However, getting pushed out of that could do you some good.

Also, joining the gang would give you a much steadier income. You really need the money for Lun-

Your eyes snap open.  
_The money._

Your limbs ache in protest as you frantically jump out of bed and reach for the loose wooden plank beneath it. **If that fucking bloodhound dared to-**

… _thank **GOD**_. All the money is still there, safely hidden underneath your bed. You can deem yourself lucky that Levi didn’t ask one of his boys to search your house during the interrogation. And if they did, they clearly didn’t find your secret storage place underneath the floor.

You let out a deep, exhausted sigh. Now that you’re out of bed, you might as well get up and start the day.

As you push yourself into your routine again, you try to think about what things you could possibly do next. You feel really uneasy about the fact that Levi has given you exactly **zero** information about what he's planning to do with you. When is he going to allow you to participate in a heist? Life is a damn ticking bomb right now, you don’t exactly have the time to wait around until _His Majesty_ decides to incorporate you in his operations.

**_Ugh._ **

For now, you decide to just go visit Gary again. There really isn’t much else you can do for the moment, and you could really use his warm, familiar presence right now. Maybe that will give you the strength and motivation to brainstorm about what to do next.

When you arrive at Gary’s bar, you're immediately welcomed by his enthusiastic greeting.  
“And look who's there! Glad to see ya again, kid. How you doing?”

“Could be better, but can’t complain.” you mumble honestly as you haul yourself onto the barstool in front of him. Truly, you can’t _really_ complain considering you **should’ve been dead by now.**

“What about you?” you ask as you lean on the counter with your elbows, “Costumers been a little more bearable?”

“More or less.” he grunts in return, as he busies himself by washing some glasses.

You snort. “Oi oi that doesn’t sound too good.”

“You should’ve seen these punks yesterday, the drunkards nearly trashed my whole damn place. All because some fucker enticed all his pals to act like wild animals. Can you believe that same shithead paid all their drinks with cash that turned out to be fake?”

“And I can take it you proceeded to beat his ass into oblivion?” you ask, unable to contain a smirk.

“Didn’t get the chance yet. Only found out about the money this morning, but trust, I will.” he grunts darkly.

You snort in amusement. “I’m praying for the poor bastard already.”

A broad grin forms on Gary’s face as he continues to wash the dishes.

“Is he a regular?” you ask him out of curiosity.

“Not really, but the few times he’s been here, he’s always been a pain in the ass. The bastard also has a real talent for scaring my female customers away.”

Suddenly, an idea pops into your head. Since you have no idea what Levi’s plan is, you can’t just wait around for him to make a move. You need to keep the cashflow going at all times, and it seems like you may have just found your new prey.

“Stealing, causing chaos and proprietary damage, AND harassing clients. Sounds like the man needs to be taught a little lesson.” you say with a playful, mischievous smile plastered on your face.

Gary’s eyes immediately flicker up to yours, and the amused smirk that follows is as broad as it can possibly get.

“Sounds about right.” he responds, clearly pleased with what you’re silently implying.

“Just curious,” you shrug with exaggerated innocence, “what do you know about him?”

Gary snorts. The over-exaggerated innocent façade you always put up whenever you pry for information never fails to amuse him. You both know what you need it for, but you never straightforwardly talk about it. It has always been like a little game between you two, never quite mentioning what you do for a living.

“Hmm… let’s see.” he mumbles as he leans on the counter while regarding you with a contemplative eye, “His name is Bobby, he’s a pottery maker, and he has a little stand where he sells his vases and whatnot. It’s a couple of streets away, I think next to Randons’ pub? I also know that the man has a real weak for the ladies, which really turns into the worst fucking trait whenever he’s drunk.”

“Okay, good... good.” you hum as you think this through. “What does he look like?”

Gary’s lips twitch in amusement before he informs you that your soon-to-be-victim must be in his early fifties, that he has a bit of a beer pouch, a big nose, and that his brown locks have been cursed with an increasingly receding hairline. Gary really doesn’t spare the man, and you can’t help but chuckle at his hidden insults and his all-but-flattering description.

Once you decide you’ve gathered enough information, you allow the conversation to take its natural turn towards other subjects, and after a good pleasant chitchat, you bid your farewell and return home.

Time to pay Bobby a little visit.

You decide it would be wise to observe him first before your attack, so when you arrive home, you change up and put on your mother’s long vest. With its big hood and its unobtrusive, washed, dark oak color, it is definitely one of the pieces that will bring the least amount of attention to yourself.

Once you arrive at the pub Gary mentioned, it doesn’t take you too long to find Bobby’s stand, exactly as Gary described it. You set yourself in a discrete place, and pretend like you’re reading a book as you observe him. He seems like quite the chatter, and you’re not really surprised he’d go all berserk under the influence of alcohol. Gary also wasn’t exaggerating when he mentioned Bobby’s uncontrollable thirst. The man is staring at approximately every single woman who passes his stand.

Good.

After some observation time and some discrete walks to catch better angles, you conclude that he seems to store his money in a bowl underneath the counter of his stand. It seems that bowl might be sitting in a little cabinet, because every time he reaches for change, his movements indicate that he opens and closes a little door of some sort. _Dammit._ This means that the cash isn’t really out in the open, and unfortunately, you probably won’t easily be able to reach the bowl from behind the counter in one quick move. In other words, distracting him and swiftly stealing his bowl while he isn’t looking most likely won’t work. You can’t afford to take the risk and get caught either, since you’re in a very public place. The last thing you need right now is to get your ass busted by everyone who is walking around his stand.

You will have to find a way to get behind the counter with him, and distract him _real_ good.

 _Welp_ … time to put your seductive, innocent façade up. You will definitely have to go home for a good outfit switch for this one.

You really are lucky your grandmother and mother tailored as a hobby. If it wasn’t for that, you’re quite certain half your missions would fail. Putting on cute dresses to seem seductive and innocent, switching your attire to become unrecognizable, wearing unobtrusive cloaks: all these tactics have drastically helped you during your journey as a thief, and you sometimes wonder if you would still be alive today if it wasn’t for the clothes you have inherited and fabricated. You can only be thankful your parents were middle-class citizens, and that you have the privilege of owning multiple clothing pieces to begin with. Sometimes, you wonder if this isn’t the reason why life is kicking you so hard in the guts right now: you’ve had it quite easy compared to a significant percentage of people who live here, and maybe fate has decided to restore a fairer balance for you.

It’s not that you haven’t suffered, your teenage years undeniably felt like a hopeless nightmare, but you’ve always had a roof over your head, you’ve always had someone around who loves and supports you, you’ve always had a warm place to return too, and your mental state has never tumbled down to the very worst places. However, you know the same cannot be said about the many orphans who are left to starve on the streets. This has always left you feeling guilty, and whenever you have food or goods left to spare, you go out of your way to find people and children who might need it more than you.

It still has never erased that gnawing guilt you secretly feel inside, but at least, you can happily say you never steal from innocent, poor people anymore. You limit yourself to the cruel and greedy rich, or the absolute psychopaths.

…and maybe occasionally the people who are a pain in the asshole like mr. Bobby over there.

You’re not entirely sure the man deserves it, but Gary has successfully convinced you he needs to be taught a little lesson, so who are you to refuse? Besides, it’s for the greater good anyway.

Deciding you’ve observed Bobby long enough, you turn around and walk back home for your outfit change. You decide to switch your usual black pants and old shirt with a cute white summery dress your mother had tailored herself many years ago. It hugs your body in a flattering way without being too revealing. It is slightly alluring, yet still innocent. You highly suspect your mother of fabricating this dress for the same purpose you’re going to use it now, and the mere fact you’re following her exact same footsteps brings up a bittersweet feeling within you. You miss her so much.

You try to bite the aching feeling in your chest away. There’s really no time to get emotional _again._

You glance at your reflection in the mirror as you put the dress on. Oh, this is going to work **wonderfully.** This dress undoubtedly makes you look out of place in the Underground, but then again, that’s precisely the point. You have to look like a sweet lady who is part of the richer citizens of the city, and thus, would _never_ steal. Just a cute girl who has a _passion_ for vases. And it turns out this dress is doing a tremendous job at conveying that image.

Taking a handbag that you’re sure will be big enough for Bobby’s treasure trove, you rush outside and make your way through the city again.

Time to have a little fun.

The moment you arrive at Bobby’s stand, you can already feel his gaze lingering on you.

Putting on your best good-girl act, you pretend that while you’re just casually wandering around, your gaze _oh so happens_ to fall on his _masterpieces_. You fake an expression of interest and awe as you approach his stand.

“Wow, did you make those yourself?” you mutter in admiration as you stare at the pots and vases displayed behind him.

“All mine, and I’ve got everything you might need: bowls, pots, plates, vases and so on.” he explains proudly.

“Your work is… beautiful.” you mutter in wonderment, voice sweet as honey as you lean on the counter, seemingly to get a closer look at his work. In reality, you’re purposely pushing yourself forward to put your cleavage on full display. You have to play all your cards here, after all.

You can immediately see him swallowing thickly, and his cheeks turn into a slightly warmer shade of red as he seems to struggle to maintain his gaze on your eyes. _Good._

“I-I’m glad you like it. Thank you, miss...?”

Alright, going straight to the point it seems. Again, not very surprising considering everything Gary told you about him.

You give him a fake name, and he gives you his real name in return, before proceeding to tells you how _pleased_ he is to meet you.

You continue telling him how you don’t know much about pottery, but you would _love_ to know more about this beautiful art craft. He seems more than pleased to discuss every single detail about his work, and while he does, you give him your **everything**. You smile, you giggle, you twirl your hair, you bite your lip in seductive admiration, and you boost his ego as if you’re _relishing_ at the thought of him doing all this _mind-blowing_ work. By the time he’s finished, you have him completely in your power. He’s nervous, he’s sweating, he’s trying to impress you, and his cheeks have reached a visibly deeper shade of red.

“Would you be so sweet to let me get a closer look? I’d love to see the details of your work.” you tell him while innocently biting your lip. You purposely let the seduction drip out of every syllable of your words.

He seems to hesitate for about a second, but this completely falters away the moment you excitedly tell him how ‘ _beautiful that red vase is_ ’, and ‘ _oh my God that blue one!_ ’.

Without hesitating a second longer, he opens the door of his stand, and lets you inside. As you pretend to observe and admire his collection, you notice him nervously rubbing his sweaty palms on his shirt. You would be lying if you said this whole thing wasn’t beyond amusing to you, and his nervousness only makes you want to push it further.

You take a vase that slightly resembles the form of an hourglass, and slowly slide your index finger across its surface. You can feel Bobby’s gaze lingering on your fingers, and you’re pretty certain you just heard him gulp.

“Look.” you tell him with a sweet voice as you take his hand and gently trace his fingers over the vase. “Do you feel the smoothness of the curves? It’s almost hypnotizing, the way it goes _up… and down… and up again…_ ” your voice is a taunting whisper at this point, though it could be confused with innocent admiration.

It takes you every bit of restraint to not burst into laughter because of this this little act of yours, but he doesn’t seem to notice. Instead, he's beyond flustered now. You single-handedly reduced him to a stuttering mess, and the tint of his cheeks is now comparable to the one of an overripe tomato, while drops of sweat are crawling down his forehead.

Okay, maybe you’re taking this a little too far, but _good lord_ this is funny.

Concluding you’ve really done the most, you decide to hop on part two of the plan: actually robbing the guy.

You let his hand go and walk towards the counter. You can already see the cabinet, which undoubtedly contains his bowl of money. Luckily, the little cabinet door doesn’t seem to be locked, just as you had expected.

You turn around and casually lean with your back on the counter, facing him with a playful smile. You purposely positioned yourself right next to his cabinet.

“Okay I want _you_ to choose something for me now.”

“Me? B-but I don’t know what you like.” he stutters.

“I like everything.” you respond as you give him a playful wink. “Just pick something you think fits me the best. I’ll close my eyes, I promise.” you try to sound convincingly excited and playful.

He turns around and starts scanning his collection, clearly _very_ preoccupied with finding something that won’t disappoint you.

You feel your heart hastening its beats as you slowly reach for the cabinet door behind you. If you make one single noise now, you’re finished.

After soundlessly opening the little door, you slowly grab the bowl, and take it out of the cabinet. You manage to slip it in your bag and close your eyes just in time before Bobby turns around. _Thank God._

“I think this suits you best.” he mutters, and you open your eyes again.

You excitingly walk towards him, while being careful not to make any brusque movements. You got a glass bowl with a bunch of coins in your bag after all, and you really don’t want it to make any noise right now.

As you walk towards him with an excited expression, you think about your next move. You know you need to get out of this place before he notices his money is gone. This means you can’t buy the vase he chose for you, because that would require him to go grab some change.

You already know what you have to do.

You slide your fingers over the dark blue vase he chose for you.

“Wow… it’s so beautiful… but…”. _Okay you need to look emotional now, cry, look sad, think about sad things._

You purse your lips before continuing.

“… it looks exactly like the one my grandfather used to have. He passed away a week ago.” you mutter sadly, as you force your voice to break and your lips to tremble.

Bobby blurts out a panicky, apologizing mess, and you put your hands over his. “Don’t apologize, it’s not your fault, but I just can’t take it… I’m sorry.”.

“W-wait, I can choose something else.”

You shake your head with a sniff. “No… I think this was meant to be. It's a sign. I need to visit my grandmother again and support her through these painful times.”

You then look up at him with a pained smile and trembling lips. “But thank you so much Bobby, take care.”

Before he can respond, you quickly turn around and start fake crying until you’re out of his sight. It’s only after you're a hundred percent certain that you’re safely out of eyesight and earshot, that you stop to process the melodramatic scene you just pulled. A snort escapes you as you play back the entire conversation in your head.

You did him _**so**_ damn dirty, not to mention he’s still going to get his ass beat by Gary. You can’t help but burst into an uncontrollable laughter, which earns you a couple of confused stares.

You feel slightly bad for the guy, having to deal with you and Gary teaming up to completely **destroy** his day, but this doesn't seem to still your laughter in any way.

You peep inside your bag, and it looks like you just stole quite a decent amount of money. This almost causes you to snort into laughter again, but you manage to control yourself just in time, and decide to go home.

As you walk through the filthy streets and alleys of the city, your amusement is slowly replaced by a slight feeling of anguish. For some reason, you feel like you’re being followed. You felt it when you went to Bobby’s stand too, but back then, you didn’t pay any attention to it. You were way too preoccupied with what was awaiting you, and you thought you just felt nervous about your little mission. However, that is now over, yet the nervous feeling hasn't subsided. You really don’t see or hear anything particularly suspicious around you though, so maybe your mind is just playing games with you because you _expect_ Levi to send one of his men to follow you.

The anxious feeling only seems to increase the more empty the streets become. You’re now walking through a secluded area, and though you normally don’t mind this part of town too much, this time, it makes you feel really uneasy.

As you enter a short tunnel, you look behind you in anguish. Is there really no one following you?

_**Clap.** _

You jump and almost scream as the loud sound echoes through the tunnel. You immediately look in front of you again in one brisk movement.

**_Clap._ **

There he stands, none other than the bane of your existence.

Levi.

He's waiting for you in the shadows at the end of the tunnel, giving you a slow clap while nonchalantly leaning against the corner of the wall. His eyes are dark and cold, and so is everything else he irradiates.

_How did you not notice or hear him?_

“What a touching performance.” he hums as he gives you one final dramatic slow clap, voice drenched with dry sarcasm. “Dirty little tricks seem to be your specialty.” His expression is cold and stoic, but you don’t miss the dark mocking undertone in his voice.

“Pretty ironic coming from you, isn’t it? Don't think you have much to say about that.” you counter calmly.

The side of his lip curls up, but the dangerous glint in his pupils tell you that challenging him might not have been the _best_ idea.

He tilts his head to the side, and swiftly flicks his tongue over his canines while scrutinizing you detail by detail. His deadly silver-blue orbs burn through your skin, and they manage to quickly deteriorate every single bit of confidence you held before.

He gets off the wall, and starts approaching you while scouring you from top to toe. The uneasy feeling in your stomach keeps inflating as he comes closer and closer. He’s unpredictable, you have no idea what he's thinking or what his next move will be, and this mere fact makes you beyond nervous. As you secretly have a weapon strapped on your thigh, you instinctively bring your hand slightly closer to the hem of your dress.

“Draw out that little knife of yours and I’ll have you slaughtered on the spot.”

You clench your jaw, wondering _how the fuck_ he even noticed.

“You’re lucky you sparked my curiosity.” he hums as he slowly wanders around you, at a dangerously close distance. You don’t know how he does it, but he effortlessly manages to make you feel infinitely small and intimidated in a matter of seconds. He just radiates this eerily menacing aura that completely overshadows any resolve or pride you try to hold on to. You don’t want to look intimidated, but you can’t help but avoid his gaze as he comes closer.

You gasp as a sudden forceful hand grabs you by the upper arm and yanks you forward.

Your faces are dangerously close now, causing the wicked venom in his eyes to fill your entire vision.

“ _But don’t push your luck_. I couldn’t care any fucking less how useful you claim to be if you’re going to get on my nerves _._ ” he grunts menacingly while stabbing you with his icy blue eyes.

He leans in and brings his lips closer to your ear. His voice is now a mere, threatening whisper. “I don’t trust you one fucking bit, so I’d be careful and _obedient_ if I were you. Wouldn’t want you rotting under the dirty soil we’re standing on, now would we?”

Your breath hitches unwillingly, and you bite your tongue to stop yourself from showing any other sign of weakness. You **hate** how he successfully manages to intimidate you like this every single time.

He pulls back to meet your gaze, and proceeds to scan your features. The discomfort you’re feeling grows by the second as he consumes every crevice, every detail, every single sign of emotion that might reach surface. For a moment, the corners of his lips curl up ever so slightly into something evil and sadistic. He is devouring all the emotions playing across your face, hungrily consuming your fear and discomfort.

The worst is that you can’t hide it. You can’t repress it. He sees right through you, and all you can do is watch as he savors your weakness.

He suddenly lets you go and takes a step back, creating a safe distance between you two again.

“Wasn’t a smart choice to mingle in my affairs, and now that you have, you’re not going anywhere. Best get used to it, runt.” He looks indifferent and emotionless again, as if that unnecessarily cruel smile had never appeared in the first place.

Before you know it, he turns around and walks away.

“Come by at our hideout at twelve tomorrow. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you where that is.” he says without looking back.

_“ **Be there on time**."_

And from one moment to the other, he's gone again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed tormenting the poor Bobby, and having Karma gently hit your asses in return 😌😌
> 
> Chapter update was a lilll bit slower this time, and the next chapter might take a lil more than a week to upload as well (it will be a BIG one tho), because ya girl is in the midst of her exams
> 
> Which she is miserably failing, by the way. I'm probably only going to go to 1 out of my 3 exams, and my master's thesis isn't going **any** better either.  
> So, all my people who are failing classes, failing university, school, work, anything. LET'S RISE UP AND GIVE EACH OTHER BIG VIRTUAL HUGS, BC WE'RE IN THIS TOGETHER.
> 
> Honestly, where do I find the motivation during this pandemic? WHERE??? Like forreal, lockdown has k i l l e d my semester. I'm a massive procrastinator with 0,00 self-control to begin with, so I really need to study in a library with fellow students. I just need that social pressure and that reminder that I have shit to do like everyone else. But with lockdown? Just me, myself, and my pc in my room? All I do is endulge myself in all forms of escapism, and forget I actually have a life and responsibilities. Result: I don't do shit, and my summer is about to be filled with horrible resits LMFAOOOOOO pray for me. (if I have to continue my thesis during the summer I'll CRY)
> 
> Anyways, if you're failing like me: know you're NOT alone in this. Don't be too hard on yourself, because everybody functions in different ways. The pandemic affects people in different ways too. Just be kind to yourself, and remember that no matter how much we embarass ourselves with failures, life keeps going on and we'll survive, like we always have ❤️❤️
> 
> Okay enough of my rambling. I wish you all a VERY happy new year in advance (unless you're reading this in the future, in which case, hello there c: ), I hope you all have a wonderful week, and see you next chapter!! <3


	8. So the Game Begins

Every part of your being is protesting as you reluctantly lumber through the city, with the gang’s headquarters as your destination. It’s almost like your legs have grown a will of their own, forcing you to do what you must. The only way is forward, and those legs of yours know that all too well.

You can’t help but reminisce about the life you’re about to leave behind as you get closer and closer to the hideout. Though you would’ve loved to stay in the illusory safety of your own home for just a little longer, you couldn’t. You can’t afford to be late after all, Levi made that perfectly clear. There is no way back, and the only thing you can do is brace yourself for the shitstorm that is about to befall you.

Your stomach bubbles with uneasiness when you realize you’re almost there. _Farewell, life_.

When you take your last turn, you immediately notice in relief that at least, there’s no one hanging around the hideout. The gang members quite regularly sit and chat on the stairs that lead to the front door, so you can deem yourself lucky you won’t have to deal with Levi’s boys right now.

You take a deep breath, and allow yourself a little moment of mental preparation. You notice the hideout seems quite peaceful when no one is around. Luckily, it isn’t located in the most dangerous and poorest parts of the Underground, where every wall is covered with deep cracks and all buildings are on the verge of collapsing. Instead, you would consider this area of the city to be pretty decent. Everything just looks normal and average. The brick walls are dirty and covered with mold as usual, and the ground is covered with puddles of sewage water like everywhere else. Nothing exceptionally fancy, but nothing particularly unsightly either.

You take one last breath before deciding to just get it over with. The slight feeling of calmness you had managed to evoke, drastically deteriorates as you grudgingly drag yourself on the stairs. Oh, how you wish you could just turn around and go back home.

Honestly though, what are you even getting yourself into? This is a damn mess. You’re about to become slave of one of the most skilled gangs of the city, and more specifically, you’re enslaving yourself to the man who is arguably be the most feared gang leader known in the Underground. Cherry on top of the cake: he _despises_ you. You have no idea what awaits you, but what you do know is that if you’re not able to prove you’re **truly** valuable to them, you’re finished.

You lift your slightly trembling hand up to knock on the front door, but you hesitate. What if this is a trap? What if Levi changed his mind, and the stairs are empty because all his boys are waiting inside, ready to shred you to pieces? Maybe it isn’t too late to go back. What if you just leave everything behind, and go live on the streets on the other side of the city? Maybe if you can manage to hide yourself well, they will deem you dead and forgotten? You could sleep on roofs or-

You almost jump when the door suddenly opens up.

You immediately recognize the man in front of you: Furlan. His blue eyes curiously observe you as you try to regain your composure. _Nope, wasn’t about to turn back and flee at all._

“Just in time, come in.” he says as he waves for you to come inside.

You can already feel the nerves eating you up as you take your first step in the unknown terrain. You've spied on this hideout for an endless number of hours, but now, for the first time, you’re about to intrude and see it from the inside.

You walk in, and as Furlan closes the door behind you, the first thing your eyes fall upon is Levi. There are two brown couches surrounding a small table in the middle of the room, and unfortunately, he is sitting on the couch that is directly facing you. He is leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, sharply observing your every move while twirling a knife in his hands. Two silver orbs consuming you, one silver blade dangerously dancing across your vision. You genuinely wonder if you’ve ever seen a sight so intimidating, and every part of your body is screaming at you to _get the hell out of there NOW._

But you know damn well it’s too late already. There’s no way out of this mess any time soon.

“I’ve heard a lot about you.” you hear Furlan saying, and you immediately turn around to the blond boy with blue eyes, more than glad to break eye-contact with the embodiment of menace sitting behind you. A few seconds more of his sharp glare and you might have started to show pathetic signs of your nervousness.

“I’m Furlan, though something tells me you might already know that.” he tells you with a little smile. To your surprise, it’s not an unfriendly one per se.

You’re not sure how to react, so you just nod and give him a small, strained smile in return.

He signs at the couch behind you, the one next to Levi. “Please, sit down.”

As you turn around and do as he says, you feel Levi’s gaze following your every step. You don’t dare to look at him, but **good grief** he makes you nervous.

As you sit down, Furlan walks past you and Levi to grab one of the chairs sitting around the table at the back of the room. He then drags it back, places it next to the couch Levi is sitting in, and turns it around to face you.

The three of you are now silently sitting around the little table, and you immediately notice that Furlan is looking at Levi, as if he’s waiting for him to say something. Your eyes slide from Furlan to Levi, and you immediately regret this decision the moment your gazes lock. There’s an eerie calm about him as he silently observes you, but his expression is devoid of any kind of warmth. In fact, there’s something truly cold and unsettling about the way he is looking at you, and you don’t like that dancing knife of his _one single bit._

You’re just about to look away in discomfort, when he suddenly stops playing with his blade and speaks up.

“You claimed you’d be useful to us, so we’re going to give you a chance to prove that.” he starts.

He keeps your gaze locked as he leans in closer to you. “Needless to say, I know you’re hiding something, so **one** misstep and it’s over for you. Understood?” His voice is low, and his tone is calm but threatening.

You clench your jaw and nod.

Without breaking eye contact, he slowly leans back again. “We’ll give you certain tasks, see what you’re capable of. Don’t worry, they’ll follow pretty quickly after each other since you have to pay back that _debt_ of yours in time.”

The way he spits out those last words clearly indicates he doesn’t believe your excuse one bit.

 _“Alright then. I’ll believe you for now”,_ you remember him saying _._ You suppose you sounded believable enough for him to know you weren’t completely talking out of your ass, but at the same time, he also knows you’re still hiding something. You wonder if that isn’t one of the reasons he let you go to begin with: maybe he wants to see for himself what you’re hiding, solve the puzzle on his own terms. This is quite concerning to say the least, but you try not to think too much about it for now.

“We have four tasks in mind. If you do well, you’re in. Don’t disappoint us.”

Levi’s eyes flicker to Furlan, as if to tell him to continue the explanation. You look at him, and surely, he starts to explain your tasks.

“For your first mission you will be spying around. We know that is your domain, so we’re not going easy on you. Collect information about a trade without getting your hands dirty, and report it back to us. Second mission you will do together with Levi. Third and fourth you will do alone, but we’ll give you the details when the time comes.” Furlan explains.

You really don’t know what to think about all of this. It’s very logical they want to test you first before letting you in the gang, but it’s nerve wracking to know that your life depends on it. Four tasks, and you need to do them well, each and every one of them. If you can’t manage to prove yourself, you can kiss your life goodbye. With them knowing where you live, and probably constantly keeping an eye on you, you don’t think you’ll be able escape if they end up deciding you’re of no use to them. _Especially_ not with Levi around. He would relentlessly hunt you down until he’s sure you won’t ever be able to stand in his way again. Considering he has already proven that that’s one of his talents, you highly doubt you’d be able to get away with it. He would find you one way or another.

In other words, you have no choice but to succeed at these tasks.

Are you even skilled enough for this? What are their expectations? Sure, your senses are sharp and you’re a good spy. You’ve also gotten very good at parkouring and defending yourself, but what if their expectations are higher than your capabilities? They’re a dangerous and feared gang, what if they’re much stronger than you?

 **Wait, no.** Stop that. You’re doubting yourself, _again_. You have to believe in yourself. If you don’t, who else will? You can’t let your fear and self-doubt get the better of you right now, you need to stay strong. You managed to outrun the boys multiple times, and you were doing really well until that bastard caught you. You will be _okay_.

Your self-encouraging thoughts are put on a hold when Furlan takes your silence as a cue to continue his explanation.

“For your first mission, we need you to spy and collect information from an underground distributor. He directly buys products from upper-ground suppliers, and sells them to merchants all over the city. Just like every distributor in the city, he is an absolute scammer. You probably already know that guys like him control the entire market, and let people starve by drastically increasing the prices for their own gain. The distributor you have to spy on today is the same one we robbed during the first heist you interfered with, the one who was trading with Waltson, that rich upper-ground bastard. We know he should be trading again soon, but we don’t know anything about it yet. It’s your task to collect as much information as possible: when the trade will occur, where, with who, how much money will be involved, how many guards there will be, and so on. We’re going to give you his address so you have somewhere to start.”

You nod, and he continues. “The one important thing here is that he cannot find out he’s being spied on at all costs. If he suspects a new attack, he will change his plans. So collect the information however you want, but don’t get your hands dirty.”

You bite your cheek and nod, while trying to push your self-doubt away.

Levi’s attention darts from Furlan to you, and you can immediately tell he’s about to speak up.

“You have two days.” he announces.

“Only two days??” you stammer in shock.

You’ve spied a lot in your life, and even for you, that’s **nothing** considering all the information they want you to collect. It might have been doable if you could get your hands dirty, but that distributor can’t even suspect _one_ single thing. What are the chances you’ll catch any interesting conversation, or get your hands on important documents in two days? They’re not being very generous about the information they’re giving you either. No name, no work schedule, no information about when or how often he leaves his house, hell, you don’t even know what the man _looks_ like. You’d bet on everything you own that they _do_ have all this information considering they’ve robbed, and thus undoubtedly stalked the guy before, but they’re just choosing not to give it to you. _The bastards._

“Is there a problem?” Levi asks calmly while cocking his head to the side, and you don’t miss the malicious glint in his eyes.

 _The fucker chose this on purpose._ He clearly is the one behind this decision _._ He doesn’t want you to do well at all, he wants to watch you fail miserably. He probably can’t **_wait_** to break all the confidence you showed him during your little speech back when he interrogated you. The heartless fucking vermin.

He observes you with both his arms nonchalantly posed on the backrest of the couch, like an entitled emperor sitting on his throne. You can almost see his pupils dilating as he is savoring the delicacy that is your helplessness. You both know all too well that you’re in no position to argue or protest, so all you can do is silently oblige as he enjoys the show.

“That’s what I thought.” he murmurs, and you _swear_ he is holding back a sinister smirk behind that seemingly expressionless face of his.

 **_The son of a bitch_** _._

You can feel the anger boiling inside of you, and you don't even _care_ that you can't repress it. You're clenching your jaw and narrowing your eyes while poisonously staring him down. However, this only seems to fuel him further. Locking your gaze, he brings his arms down and comes closer to you until his elbows are resting on his knees. He looks you straight in the eyes, with an intensity that could probably set you ablaze if that was physically possible.

“ _Don’t fuck it up_.” he whispers with exaggerated articulation, each syllable dripping with maliciousness.

Looks like this sadistic fucking cretin will be the end of you after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was initially going to post this chapter along with the next one as 1 big chapter, but it would be waaaay to long, so I decided to split it up. This chapter is a little short now, but next one will be long af hehe ~ ✿
> 
>  **Image credits:** Screenshot from AOT: No Regrets


	9. Red seduction and Dancing blades: I

Laying on a rooftop in the richest neighborhood of the city is honestly not so bad.

You’re on top of your victim’s house, if greedy distributors could ever be considered as such. Earlier, when you were observing his residence from the corner of the street, you noticed that the lights were on. The man is still inside, which means that breaking into his house and searching for important documents will have to wait for now. What better place to wait it out than on his roof? He has a balcony, so your plan is to wait until he leaves, descend from the roof using some rope, and break in through there.

He can't suspect being spied on, so you will just have to make it look like a casual robbery, and hope this doesn’t arise any suspicions. It’s risky, but you really don’t see any other alternative since you only have two days. You will just have to leave the rooms that might contain important trading documents look perfectly untouched, so that he believes no one got their hands on any trading information.

In the meantime, all you can do is wait.

You haven’t been in this rich neighborhood for years, and the contrast between this area and any other place in the city is even more striking than in your faint memories. There are significantly less drunkards wandering around, street fights seem quite rare, the alleys don’t reek of piss, and the buildings almost look _new_. No mold, no cracks, just houses that actually look nice. The buildings are much bigger and taller too, which made it a **pain in the ass** for you to climb to where you are now. You had to climb up a smaller house at the end of the street, and work your way from building to building until you arrived on the roof you are laying on now.

You’ve been waiting for three hours now, and though you are bored out of your mind, you’re glad you came prepared. You knew beforehand that you would probably have to wait a long time, so you took a warm blanket with you, and some food. Of course, you also brought a variety of lockpicks for when you will have to break in.

… If you ever get the chance, at least. What if the man is on some sort of work-break, and doesn’t leave his house the next coming days? If he is, and it turns out Levi knew about that, you will gladly perform your first true attempt at murder and strangle the shithead with your own hands. Everybody has their limits, and that imp is _pushing_ it.

You almost doze off as the hours go by, until you suddenly hear the front door opening. Your eyes snap back open, and you quickly get on your feet. You quietly slink to the border of the roof to look down at the street below, and you see a man with dark hair and somewhat fancy looking clothes closing the door, locking it, and walking away.

The distributor guy is gone. **Finally**. You can only hope there is no one else in the house.

Time to break in before he comes back.

You take the thick rope you attached to the chimney earlier, and you throw it down to the balcony below. Luckily, this balcony doesn’t face the public street. Instead, it is located at the opposite side, above the distributor’s paved backyard.

You carefully climb down, and after verifying that the lights inside are off and that everything seems to be quiet, you pick the lock of the balcony’s glass doors.

You quietly slink inside, and thoroughly observe your surroundings. You’re in a sort of lounging room, and you can confidently say that this is **by far** the most luxurious sight you’ve ever seen. This room is nothing like the typical interiors of the Underground. In most households, the walls are cracked and dirty, the flooring is made out of old creaking wooden planks, and all colors are muted and washed. This, on the other hand, is entirely different. The walls are perfectly white and sparkling clean, the hardwood flooring is covered with an expensive carpet, and the luxurious couches are made out of a rich burgundy color. All the dark oak furniture matches together, and every single piece looks heavy and expensive. You can’t believe such beauty can be part of the disgusting shithole that is this city, and it really makes you question how much money disappears in people’s pockets without anyone knowing. Seems like these rich suppliers, distributors and merchants steal even more from the population than you had initially thought.

The greedy fucking bastards.

You’re just about to take an expensive looking little clock on one of the cabinets, when you hear something downstairs.

Your entire body freezes, and you listen attentively.

It almost sounded like… a low grunt?

You jump when you hear loud barking echoing through the house.

**_Oh FUCK._ **

The next moment, you hear what sounds like a hoard of unleashed demons running up the stairs. The dogs sound _furious,_ and their dinner will definitely be served if you don’t hurry the fuck up and get out of there NOW.

You frantically sprint to the balcony with a group of furious beasts on your tail, and you manage to grab the thick rope and haul yourself up _just_ in time before the dogs storm on the balcony. They're angrily barking beneath you, and your heart sinks in fear at the thought of slipping due to your sweaty hands, and getting shred to pieces.

With dread twisted in your gut, you look down as you keep hauling yourself up. The view is **horrifying**. Four black, massive dogs are jumping up, trying to reach you, looking like they would even swallow your bones whole after eating your flesh.

You quickly look up again and concentrate on hauling yourself up, scared that the sight of the dogs will make you so dizzy that you will lose your grip.

You keep going up and up, and when you finally reach the roof, you collapse on the surface. The dogs are still barking loudly, but at least you’re safe now. You look up, panting, thanking every deity that might exist to have spared you from getting eaten alive.

 _Four dogs_. Massive ones, at that. Who the HELL has four monsters in their house??

You groan when you realize the stupidity of your question.

Rich bastards do, of course. If anyone would have a plethora of guarding dogs, it’s them.

You smack your forehead with the palm of your hand. You should have _known._ Of course the man wouldn’t leave his house unguarded. Not in a city like **this**.

It took you by surprise because you aren’t used to people having guarding dogs. It’s not that such dogs aren’t highly needed, but the majority of people are just too poor to have them. They struggle to feed themselves, let alone feed an entire other living being. Additionally, there aren’t any dog shelters here, so dogs are either bought from above-surface, which is expensive, or they are retrieved by capturing the puppies of stray dogs on the streets. Either way, it is not a common occurrence, and you completely missed that _of course_ the rich fucks would own multiple of such beasts.

…What the hell do you do now? You can’t break in with these dogs around, that’s for sure.

Maybe you can poison them?

No. Not only would you feel an embarrassing amount of guilt, but you’re also a hundred percent certain that the man has trained his dogs to refuse food from strangers. There is no way you could make them eat something. Poisoning dogs is the most obvious, cheapest tactic, and there is exactly zero chance that the rich shithead would not have taken this method into account.

Shit.

 **SHIT**.

You're doomed. You can do nothing but wait until the guy comes back, and hope that he will leave his house again tomorrow. Maybe, by miracle, he will do something related to his next big trade.

You snort out of misery. This is a joke. What are the chances you will catch any helpful information? You are _fucked._

Your feeling of helplessness starts to slowly replace itself by anger when you think about a pair of cruel, silver hues.

Levi. That **FUCKER.**

Did he know about this? He, or one of his men, has stalked this place before, right? What are the chances they _didn’t_ know?

Slim. The chances are very slim.

Maybe failing won’t be so bad after all. If Levi decides he has proven your worthlessness, and decides to put an end to you, you will at least have the pleasure of fighting him again. You will be REALLY pissed if you die before seriously wounding the bastard though. Maybe you should sharpen your knives a bit before going back to the headquarters.

You let out an exhausted sigh and close your eyes. For now you can do nothing but wait, while imagining satisfying scenarios of strangling the gremlin with your bare hands.

...................

The anger from yesterday is slowly simmering down as the new day goes by, and this is giving room for hopelessness again. 

This is your last day, and the rich fuckhead is not leaving his damn house.

The few weak rays of sunshine that manage to descend into the city every day, are slowly disappearing. With that, the faint bit of hope you’ve been holding onto is crippling away as well. The man has not left his house once, and you suspect today might be his day off. That, or he is working from home.

Either way, it seems the mysterious force of luck hasn’t been in the mood to help you out today, and it looks like you’re about to royally fail your first mission.

You’ve been trying to come up with another plan, you really have, but there’s nothing that could possibly convince the guy to willingly let you inside and stop his dogs from devouring you alive. People here are way too cautious, no one would be stupid enough to let a stranger inside. If you had _any_ information about him, you might be able to come up with something, but you don’t even know the man’s name.

In conclusion: you’re screwed.

You don’t think Levi and Furlan won’t let you perform the other tasks they have in mind, but it goes without saying that completely failing your very first mission is a _terrible_ way to persuade them you can be useful to the gang. Levi might have set you up, but that doesn’t change the fact you aren’t able to prove him wrong.

You groan at the thought of having to flee your home and hide at the other side of the city to escape death. The fact you had a terrible night’s sleep on this rooftop, and that your back was angrily protesting against the hard surface during the entire night, is NOT making you any more excited to become homeless.

As the hours pass by, all you can do is imagine some dramatic, vivid images of the tragic life that awaits you.

That is, until you suddenly hear the front door opening up.

You jump up and furrow your brows. You don’t know exactly what time it is, but you’re sure it’s already past midnight. Why is the guy leaving his house now?

You don’t wait around to think about it. Instead, you find the quickest way to descend the rooftop and follow him around.

Your heart jolts with hope when you see him entering a bar. He is probably going to get drunk, and _this might be your one and only chance._

There aren’t many other bars or pubs open in this area, so the chance of him leaving this bar any time soon is quite slim. You decide to take the risk and march home for an outfit switch. If you want to get some information out of him, you will have to convince him to talk to you in the first place.

You rummage through your closet, and decide that wearing a dress might be your best option. You own two dresses: the white one you wore to rob Bobby, and a red one you sewed yourself a year ago. It’s simple, yet elegant and seductive. It hugs your body in a very flattering way, and you’re certain this will do the trick. You strap the thinnest knife you own around your thigh underneath your dress, and hope it will never be visible through the tight fabric. To finish off, you put on a long vest to hide your attire. You really don’t want to get harassed on the streets and get confused for a prostitute, after all. You quickly put an additional knife in your vest for extra safety, before leaving your house.

You usually don’t like wandering around in the city at night, but you have to admit that in the rich area the distributor lives in, it’s almost pleasant. The streets and the buildings are significantly cleaner, there are less men who try to lure you closer, and you don’t constantly have to dodge drunken fights.

The city almost looks beautiful.

To your surprise, you also come across some MP’s on two occasions, and you wonder whether they might be paid to protect the rich scammers who have connections with greedy merchants above ground. Seems like the economic inequality in this city goes even further than you had thought. You used to believe everyone in the Underground was poor to _some extent_ , but you’re continuously being proven wrong.

When you finally arrive at the bar, you take a deep breath and _pray_ that the rich fuckhead is still inside.

The moment you open the door of the bar, your senses are met with a heavy smell of tobacco and beer. The air is musty and consumed by smoke, and the entire room is filled with loud, drunken, but enthusiastic chatter. You don’t find any of this unpleasant, though. You’re used to this after all the nights you’ve spent at Gary’s bar.

You quickly scan the place, and surely, you notice the greedy ratbag sitting on one of the barstools, smoking and chatting with someone next to him.

You approach the bar counter, and casually seat yourself on the free stool next to him. While ordering a drink, you take off your jacket to display the burning red dress beneath it.

The conversation next to you immediately dies down, and you notice him glaring at you.

“May I ask what a beautiful lady like you is doing here all alone?”

You turn around to look at him. Going by the small, but not too noticeable wrinkles tracing his features, he must be around his forties. His brown mustache slightly covers the top part of his upper lip, and his green eyes are looking at you with a drunken haze. He seems quite tipsy already, which you know forms a great advantage.

You let out an exasperated sigh while cracking a little mocking smile. “I was just wondering that myself.”

He takes a deep draw from his cigarette. “Hmm, maybe I can help with that.”

“Oh really?” you ask, while seductively looking him up and down.

The barman hands you your glass, and as you try to reach for change, you notice the ratbag is quicker. He slides a couple of coins to the barman to pay for your drink, and proceeds to buy himself an extra drink.

So far so good. He is paying for you, **and** he is getting tipsier. Excellent.

You thank him for his kind gesture with a sweet smile, and exchange names. He, the distributor you need to spy on, is called Karl, while his friend sitting next to him is called Stephan. Evidently, you give them a false name, and the three of you proceed with a little bit of small talk. You purposely let the chit-chat become a little flirtatious between you and Karl, and it doesn’t take too long before Stephan falls out of the conversation, and starts chattering with someone else next to him.

With Karl’s full attention on you now, you know you can start to steer the conversation into the direction you want.

“I’ve never seen you in this bar before, I’m sure I would’ve noticed otherwise.” Karl notes as he takes another drawl from his cigarette.

“Yeah, I don’t go to bars that often, but I really needed a drink today. Got robbed earlier.” you mumble while tracing your index finger over your glass.

“Shit, you alright?”

“Yeah, just pissed. Those damn thieves.” you respond darkly.

“Tell me about it.” he grumbles before taking a big gulp of his beer, finishing his glass. He immediately orders a new drink. _Good._

You turn your head to properly look at him. “Sounds like you’re all too familiar with it as well?”

He sighs. “Yeah… Not only did someone try to break into my house yesterday, but I also got robbed big time a couple of weeks ago.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, that sucks.” you coo softly, and you gently place your hand on his shoulder in a seemingly sweet, consoling way. Judging by the way he is looking at you, your move seems to be working.

“What happened? Pickpocketing or...?” you ask. You don’t want to sound too curious, but considering he seems to be tipsy already, you doubt this will raise any suspicions.

He hesitates a bit, but he seems to decide there’s no issue with being honest with you.

“Robbed me during a whole damn trade.” he mumbles bitterly, and his expression turns even more somber than before.

“A trade? What do you mean? Don’t tell me you’re a drug dealer.” you utter with a disappointed tone.

“A _drug dealer_?” he huffs arrogantly. Seems you successfully hit his pride. Perfect.

He leans in, and his proximity combined with the strong smell of beer and tobacco on his breath makes it surprisingly difficult to repress the urge to flinch away.

“I supply the very ingredients you’re drinking right now, sweetheart.” he whispers with a dark grin, at a clear attempt of seduction.

Arrogant and full of himself, just as expected. The way he completely misses that everyone in this city thinks people like him are absolute scum is beyond you. They’re all well known to greedily fill their pockets to let the rest of the city starve, but he doesn’t seem to realize or to care. His arrogance forms a great advantage for you though, because pride is a very powerful thing to play with.

“Oh really? You’re a supplier?” you respond while licking your bottom lip, pretending you’re _thrilled_ about the fact he is one of the few rich men of the city. You can only hope your pretended lust is hiding the actual disgust you’re feeling.

“Absolutely.” he hums as he comes even closer to you. His slightly sloopy eyes are hungrily consuming you, and a proud grin is plastered on his face. _Ugh._

Trying your hardest to hide your distaste towards him, you seductively mutter an “Interesting...” while looking him up and down in a flirtatious manner.

You turn your face into a saddened expression “You must’ve lost a lot, then.”

He sighs and his grin slowly falters. “Yeah… You can say that.” he mumbles while straightening himself up, and you’re all too glad there’s a safe distance between you two again.

“Can’t you hire guards or something?”

“I do, but these bastards always come in gangs. But don’t worry about it honey, there will be twice as many guards next time, we’ll get them assholes.”

Twice as many guards, noted.

“G-Gangs?” you stammer with fake anguish. “You could get hurt! What if they outnumber your guards and hurt you?”. You worryingly put your hand on his arm again. 

“You’re worried about me? Adorable lil thing aren’t ya?” he grins and leans in till he is way too close to you again. It seems he is thoroughly enjoying all the attention and worry you’re showering him with.

“Of course I’m worried. Now promise me you’ll set those trades in a safe place.”

“Don’t worry, I asked to get the goods directly delivered to our warehouse this time, I’ll be fine.” he grins.

 _Bingo._ So the deal will happen in their warehouse, meaning the sellers from above-surface will have all the money on hand when they leave that warehouse.

But there’s still so much you don’t know. In which warehouse will the deal occur? Which day will it happen? With who? How much money are we talking about?

…How the fuck are you supposed to access all this information? There’s no way you can ask these things to him. Levi set you up for failure. You’re already lucky Karl is tipsy enough to blatantly ramble about his work in the first place.

You’re shaken out of your thoughts when you hear loud enthusiastic cheering behind you. When you turn around, you see one of the guys in the bar standing on a chair, rapidly gulping down more than a liter of beer in one go. This is something you sometimes see at Gary’s bar as well. The guy probably lost a bet of some sort, and has to now rapidly drink a ridiculous amount of beer in a matter of seconds. Drunken macho shenanigans, but a good way to lift up the spirits nonetheless.

Suddenly, you realize how you can enter Karl’s house and search for documents, without having his dogs devouring you. This might be your chance.

“Impressive” you mumble with calculated admiration as you stare at the sight in front of you.

Karl snorts, but you don’t miss the slight hint of irritation in his reaction. “Impressive? Is that what you’re into?”. He clearly feels superior to those men, and the fact you have shifted your attention from him to them seems to hurt his ego. _God_ how arrogant can someone be.

“Secret thing of mine, I like when men can drink. Maybe it’s because I can’t, but there’s just something so attractive about it.” you mutter as you pretend to lustfully look at the man _inhaling_ an entire liter of beer.

He lifts a brow and huffs. “Really?”

“Mhm.”

You feel his gaze lingering on you as you lasciviously stare at the men in front of you, and you purposely let him stare long enough to give him the time to think this through. You then turn to him with a mischievous, playful smile plastered on your face. “Which one of you two can drink the most?” you ask while jerking your chin to Stephan.

He snorts. “This boy?” He smacks his hand on the man’s shoulder, who then turns around to look at both of you in confusion. “Can’t even have two beers without getting lightheaded.”

“Oh shut up, you know damn well I can take much more than you.” Stephan protests, but with a smirk on his face nonetheless.

Karl snorts. “You think your skinny ass sounds believable?”

“Guess I’ll just need proof then.” you tease with a mischievous, seductive smirk, while gliding your tongue over your teeth.

Karl looks you up and down, contemplating whether he should take your challenge. However, you know his pride is too big, and you’ve teased him too much. He can’t refuse, especially since he is tipsy already.

He leans in so closely to you that you can almost _feel_ the warmth of his face, and you can’t say his warm breath is particularly pleasant either.

“If I win, I expect a little _compensation._ ”

 **Yikes.** You’ll have to push him till he’s almost passed out, till you’re sure you’d easily overpower him in every single situation. Though you are carrying a knife underneath your dress, he can’t see it. You can’t blow your cover of casual-seductive-girl who is innocently going to a bar for no-reason-in-particular. Furlan made it perfectly clear you shouldn’t get your hands dirty, so you will have to be tactical about this.

You force yourself to grin lustfully. “Alright, show me what you got big boy.”

He smirks triumphantly before turning to the barman.

And so the game begins.

You keep coming up with ridiculous competitive tests, such as: “ _who can drink three shots of vodka the fastest?_ ” or “ _okay now prove to me you can finish that beer in one gulp_ ”, and whatever other ludicrous things you manage to come up with. You cheer, you tease, you stroke their egos whenever necessary, and you pretend their drinking has you falling head over heels for them.

You hit them exactly at their weakest spots: their pride.

You keep pushing as tactically as you can, and as time passes, their eyes become more droopy, their sentences turn into uncoordinated rambles, and their movements become clumsy _as hell._

“l- lemme go take a p-isSsss” Karl mumbles, and you highly suspect he is going to the bathroom to vomit, because when he stands up, he trips over his own stool and falls on the ground.

…He is drunk as **hell.**

You hear him grunting on the floor, and after dragging himself across the ground for two seconds, he quickly hauls himself up on his feet again, and hastily hurries to the bathroom.

Yep. Definitely going to puke.

You turn to look at Stephan, and it looks like he is about to pass out any second. He is leaning his head on his hands, clearly fighting to fall asleep.

“ _Tch_ , always the same with these two.” the barman grumbles, and you can’t help but chuckle. For some reason, he reminds you a little bit of Gary with his bald head and his calm, but amusing demeanor.

After some chatting with the barman, Karl comes stumbling back, with exactly **zero** balance. When his gaze falls on you, you notice a certain wickedness creeping into his eyes.

_Oh lord, here we go._

You try your hardest to hide your disgust as he clumsily blunders towards you and boxes you in, both his hands leaned on each side of the counter behind you. He comes closer, and you almost gag at the stench of alcohol and what can only be a hint of vomit.

You’re going to have to smack Levi **SO** hard for putting you through this shit.

“Looks like Stephaaan is deaaaaddd. N-now where’s that c-compensation of mine?”

“Let’s go to your place” you whisper as you push your hand on his chest. It seems like a seductive move, but in reality, you just desperately want to get away from his stench.

He simply looks at you with drunken lust, and he is clearly _completely_ out of it. You have no choice but to drag him out of the bar, while doing your very best to not make him trip because _holy shit_ the man has zero stability.

It comes to no surprise that the way back is an absolute **pain** in the ass. He barely knows how to get home. Luckily, you know his address, and he is clearly way too drunk to notice that you’re always pushing him in the right direction.

Once you finally arrive, he grabs his keys and tries to open the door, but the man is **_struggling_**. After a couple of seconds, you impatiently take it from him and open the door yourself.

Once inside, he grabs you and looks at you with lustful eyes. **_Ugh._**

You’re just about to push him away _-somewhat seductively, of course-_ when you hear loud barking coming from upstairs. It only takes a brief moment before his four massive dogs appear, and you can’t help but tense up as they approach you, while angrily barking in your direction.

Karl mumbles something incomprehensible to the dogs, but this doesn’t exactly calm them down. Though they’re not doing anything too alarming yet, you feel like they might be recognizing your smell, because they won’t stop grunting and barking at you.

…You might need to get rid of the dogs if you peacefully want to search Karl’s house.

“Can you please put the dogs away? they make me uneasy.” you pout.

Karl nearly loses his balance when he turns around to look at you, and he proceeds to give you a drunken, confused glare.

“Or else I’m out, I’m really scared of dogs.”

“Alrightalright” he mumbles, before clumsily leading his dogs to another room and locking the door.

 _Good._ Now that that’s out of the way, you need to get rid of _him_. He is drunk as shit, so if you just get him to lay down for a bit, there’s no doubt he will pass out in an instant.

“Bedroom?” you ask seductively as he lumbers back to you.

“Oh? Goin straaight to the point? I _*hick*_ I- like it.”

To your dismay, he keeps approaching you, but you push him away. “ _Bedroom_.” you whisper again, with more urgency in your voice. This time, he gives you a hungry smirk and obliges.

He clumsily leads you upstairs, and once you arrive in his bedroom, you dominantly push him on the bed. He looks at you with dazy, lustful eyes, but that immediately falters the moment you speak up again.

“Wait here, I’m going to the bathroom to freshen up first. I’ll be back in a minute.”

He grunts in protest and mumbles something incomprehensible, but you ignore him and quickly walk out of the bedroom.

You have no idea where his bathroom is, so you just wait in his corridor for about fifteen minutes. When you go back, he is asleep, passed out on his bed.

You let out a deep sigh of relief.

Time to get to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ya girl did the chapter splitting thing, AGAIN. Seems like I’m terrible at foretelling chapter lengths. My ass really thought last chapter, this chapter and next chapter could be uploaded as one LMAOOOOOOOOO PLS
> 
> I mean, technically I could, but having a 12k chapter while also having a 1,6k chapter in the same book might be a lil inconsistent. Although, there are no rules to fanfiction, so it really doesn’t matter
> 
> However, I’ve decided to spare your eyes nonetheless<3
> 
>  ** _Image credits:_** Screenshot from AOT: No Regrets


	10. Red seduction and Dancing blades: II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank the lovely CaptainDegenerate for inspiring me for one part of the very last scene of this chapter. My inspiration comes from chapter 3 of '77 Gunshots', so all credits to her<3  
> I can only recommend to go check out 77 Gunshots, and all her other work while we're at it, because EVERYTHING SHE WRITES IS SO GOOD.
> 
> Anyways, enjoy <3

It takes you hours to go through all the documents in Karl’s office. It’s clear he has no tendency of ever throwing old contracts and documents away, and it is NOT making your task any easier. The fact he can’t notice anyone probed through his documents is _quite_ the hindrance as well. Everything needs to be placed back exactly how you found it, which causes the search operation to be extremely slow and tedious. Though it's exhausting to fight against sleep for hours on end, it's worth it, because the fruits of your labor end up being particularly sweet. Not only do you find all the information you need about Karl's next trade, but you also discover documents containing information about some other trades he will perform in the future. Knowing full well you can’t steal the documents, you take some paper from his desk, and write down every information that might be useful to Levi and Furlan.

The bastards better be **pleased.**

When you’re finished, you look at the clock on the wall. It’s already eight in the morning, meaning you only have three hours left before the meeting at the hideout. _Welp,_ guess you won’t be getting any sleep tonight.

You realize there really is no point in going home. You’re much closer to the hideout than to your house, so you decide it would be better to just find a pub to go eat something, and wait there until it’s time to go.

Before leaving Karl’s house, however, you decide to freshen up a bit first. Might as well use that bathroom of his while you’re at it. You quickly take a peep inside his bedroom when you pass by it, and you crack a satisfied smile when you see that Karl is still in a deep sleep. _Oh boy_ can the fucker snore.

You tip-toe around the house till you find the bathroom, and as you open the door and walk in, your mouth gapes open in awe. It’s **huge** , the white floor tiles are shining, the bathtub is massive, and the sink is covered with an endless number of expensive soaps and scented products. The most shocking thing is that the man actually has _warm_ water. What the hell? You didn’t even think such bathrooms could exist in the Underground. Many people don’t even _have_ bathrooms to begin with. With the way it’s looking, you’re pretty sure Karl has enough money to buy citizenship to go live above surface. Seems like he is willingly staying here, which makes sense, because _how else_ can he profit from the poor? You suppose he would rather be a rich scammer in the Underground, than a poor, honest worker above-surface.

Money really is a powerful thing.

You shamelessly go over the collection of scented products in front of you, and choose an orchid scented soap to quickly wash your hair and body in the sink. Once you manage to rinse all the smell of smoke and alcohol out of you, you decide to keep the orchid soap with you. That’s for him being such a pain in the ass, and for being a selfish piece of shit in general. Besides, he probably won’t notice anyway with that huge collection of his.

Finally feeling fresh again, you leave Karl’s house and enter the nearest pub you can find. Though you’re exhausted, eating really seems to help you feeling energized again.

When you notice your time is up, you pay for your meal and head to the hideout. Luckily, the stairs are empty like last time.

You knock on the door, and Furlan opens up.

“Hey, come in.” he greets as he opens the door for you, and lets you inside. “How did it go?”

“Pretty good, I think you’ll be satisfied. I managed to fetch some information about other upcoming trades as well. Wrote everything on here.” you explain as you take out your notes out of your jacket, and wave them in the air.

He raises his brows in an impressed manner. “Alright, excellent. Let’s go to the table and see what you got.”

The moment you both seat yourselves around the table at the back of the room, you hand him your notes.

“Levi isn’t here?” you ask while he is scanning your spy-work.

“No, but he’ll come in a bit, so we’ll wait around till he arrives if that’s okay with you.”

You nod, but you feel slightly uneasy at the thought of seeing him again. You just feel way more comfortable around Furlan. At least _he_ has never looked at you like he wanted to burn you alive.

When Furlan is finished going through all your notes, he puts the papers down and looks at you, appearing genuinely impressed. “I’m not going to lie, I didn’t expect you to come back with **this** much information. You really outdid yourself there, good job.”

You can’t help the little smile on your face when you mumble a thanks.

“How did you do it?” he asks as his striking blue eyes curiously observe you.

“Let’s say I had to get him a little drunk for this one. Had to keep pushing till he almost passed out so he would let me inside his house. He didn’t suspect a thing so there’s nothing to worry about.”

He chuckles a little. “Must’ve been tiring. You did well.”

“You can say that.” you mumble, but not without giving him a little smile in return.

He sighs. “Guess we just have to wait for Levi now. He’ll probably want to give the details about your next mission if he’s satisfied enough, which I’m sure he will be.”

Furlan puts your notes aside, and grabs a bag resting on the corner of the table. He then flips it around, causing a huge stack of money to pour out of it. You almost gasp at the amount suddenly laying in front of you.

“What’s that?” you ask in surprise.

“The money we stole from last mission. I still need to count it, and the boys are getting impatient. Hope you don’t mind if I do it now while we’re waiting around?”

“No worries, go ahead.” you assure him.

The last mission, the one you interfered with, the one where Levi nearly killed you. You took a substantial part of that money, and you can’t help but feel a little guilty when you’re sitting in front of Furlan like this. You also feel uneasy when you think about the fact that nothing has been forgiven or forgotten. Levi, and maybe even Furlan, still seem to want you dead somewhere, considering they didn’t even warn you about the guarding dogs, and considering they only gave you two days despite knowing you wouldn’t just simply be able to break in. You don’t _want_ to say anything about it, but it bothers you too much.

“Furlan…” you quickly mutter before he has the time to start counting the cash.

“Hm?”

You hesitate a little, but decide to ask anyway. “Did you know this Karl guy had four huge guarding dogs? They nearly shred me to pieces when I tried to break into his home the first time.”

He looks surprised. “I didn’t know.”

“But you have spied on him before, right?”

“Levi did.”

 _Of course_ he did.

“Is Levi also the one who decided to give me two days?”

Furlan looks away, as if feeling slightly guilty. “Yes. He wanted to test the full extent of your abilities.”

“Right.” you mutter bitterly.

Just as you had initially guessed, Furlan isn’t responsible for this. It’s all just Levi messing with you, messing with your life. Whether he actually wanted to test you or not, you don't doubt there are malicious intents behind his decision as well. When Gary told you no one gets away with challenging Levi, you knew he must be of the revengeful type. That’s the only way someone can get to his position anyway. Nothing else can be expected from one of the most feared criminals in the city, really. He might have had enough reasons to spare you, but that doesn’t mean his hunger for at least _some_ type of retribution has been stilled. Considering his skill set and status, you’re sure he isn’t used to someone getting away with robbing him multiple times, _and_ wounding him multiple times, so it comes to no surprise he would want to make you suffer.

This isn’t good, and you’re not sure how you can possibly ever win when he is the one in control of everything.

Furlan’s eyes flicker up to yours, and he regards you for a moment. “Look, I know what you’re thinking, but don’t worry about it too much. Just do what you have to do, prove you can be trusted, and I promise you it will be fine. You did so well on this first mission that I’m sure you’re capable enough. If your intentions are truly genuine, you’ll be alright, okay?”

You sigh. “Yeah… okay.”

You can’t say you’re fully reassured, but you suppose that if there’s one person who can truly assess Levi and keep him somewhat in check, it would be Furlan. He wouldn’t reassure you if you were completely doomed, so you will just have to trust his words. You can truly deem yourself lucky he seems to be a bit on your side. Unlike Levi, he doesn’t seem to carry any particular malicious intents towards you. You’re sure you would be more pissed if someone had consecutively robbed you the way you did with them, so Furlan really deserves credits for that.

He's just about to start counting the money, when the front door suddenly violently slams open. You almost jump as someone comes barging in, a guy you vaguely recognize as one of the gang members. He looks alarmed, and his gaze quickly darts from you to Furlan.

“Furlan, there’s an emergency, you have to come NOW.”

“W-What?” Furlan stammers, clearly as surprised and confused as you are.

“It’s those thugs from last week, just like Levi had feared. We need some back up, immediately.”

“ _Fuck_.” Furlan mutters under his breath.

Before you can say anything, he brusquely stands up and stalks towards the front door. Right before leaving, he quickly turns around, as if he suddenly remembers you’re still in the room.

“Wait here, I’ll be back in a bit, alright?”. His features are traced with deep lines of worry.

You quickly nod, and the next moment, the door is slammed shut and they’re both gone. 

… Well that was intense.

They both looked truly alarmed, and you can’t help but feel a bit anxious for them. You have no idea what’s going on, but based on their expressions, it looked pretty bad.

You take your jacket off with a sigh. It’s probably going to take a little while, so you might as well make yourself comfortable. With your head leaning on your hand, you look around, unsure of what to do now. Your gaze then darts to the money.

You realize Furlan accidently left you alone with all his cash. If only Levi, or any of the other boys knew. You’d best not tell anyone for his sake.

…Or for your sake.

You can’t help but stare at the treasure in front of you. _It’s so much money,_ holy shit.

You decide it’s best not to stare at it too long, so you walk to one of the two couches in the room, and make yourself comfortable. You try to distract yourself by fiddling with the fabric of your red dress, but you can’t keep your mind off of the large sum of money resting on the table behind you.

Five minutes go by.

Ten minutes.

Fifteen minutes.

How long is this going to take? Can Furlan please just come save you from the _magnet_ that is all this money laying on the table?

After a couple more minutes, you stand up with a defeated sigh. Your curiosity has gotten the best of you, and you can’t seem to stop yourself from slowly sauntering towards the table.

 _Damn._ It feels strange to stand in front of such a large amount of cash. This, along with everything you have stolen previously, would probably be enough for Luna’s treatment. It’s a painful thing, being so close yet so far from saving the one person you love the most. You obviously can’t take it. If you do, you will be dead the moment they find out.

…But it’s so tempting, especially considering your time is almost up. You only have around a month left, and that is only a mere approximation. What if it’s already too late by the time you finish performing their tests and you perform your first heist? Let’s also not forget that the cash will have to be split _equally_ among the members, meaning the money you will receive per heist will be significantly less than what you’re used to. What if it takes _many_ heists to reach the required sum? Won’t it be too late by then?

The unreliability of everything makes you want to steal the cash in front of you and just accept your inevitable death, but you refuse to let your mind wander in that direction for too long. **No** , it will be alright, you still have a bit of time. Control yourself.

You know you can’t take it, but nonetheless, you can’t stop staring at it. You glide your fingers across the taunting banknotes as you try to guess the total value.

Furlan didn’t count this money yet, he has no idea how much is laying here. This means that technically, you _could_ get away with stealing a part of it, which would increase the chances of saving Luna. However, you’re fully aware that would probably be a terrible idea. Not only is there a slight chance they would notice, but you would honestly also feel a little guilty. They’re trying to trust you here, they’re giving you the opportunity to join their gang, so the _least_ you can do is not rob them **again.**

You take a stack of the treasure to closely observe it. It’s truly fascinating how some pieces of paper can hold this much power. It’s so tempting to just… _take it._

NO _. Stop._

You need to get a hold of yourself before you do anything you might regret. You put the money back in its place, and take a few steps away from the table. The more physical distance you create with the table, the less tempted you will be to steal.

“Tsk. Tsk.”

You almost shriek in surprise, and you quickly turn around with your heart leaping in your chest.

It’s **_Levi_** _._

He's leaning on the wall, silently observing you.

**_How…??!_ **

“Furlan would let this slide, but that was a little too hesitant for my liking.” he murmurs with a dangerous tone.

Suddenly, everything clicks.

There was no urgency at all, Furlan and that guy just purposely put up an act. They wanted to test you, see what you would do if you would be alone with the money, and Levi was here all along to observe your every reaction. He's standing right beside the door of the adjacent room, meaning he was probably secretly waiting in that room all along. _The fucking snakes._

How did you not notice his presence at all? How did you not hear him walking out of that room, and comfortably posing himself against the wall behind you? You had already learned from your experience in the caverns that Levi is as sly as a fox, but the mere extent of his stealth gets you every time. It’s terrifying.

Levi quickly looks you up and down and clicks his tongue in displeasure. You suddenly feel extremely uneasy. The way he looks at you is beyond threatening, but even worse, he looks almost exhilarated to make you suffer. You don’t doubt for a second that **he** is the one behind all of this again. Even though you didn’t take any money, he seems all too thrilled he caught you doing _something,_ and now, he's coming to claim his price.

No one can help you, no one can save you, Furlan isn’t there to simmer Levi’s wrath, and all you can do is watch as he’s preparing himself to shred you to pieces.

He approaches you, slowly sliding his fingers over each couch as he walks past them, and you feel your nervousness increasing with every step he takes in your direction. As he comes closer, you notice he starts to walk in circles around you in a menacing, predatory way.

“I wasn’t going to take anything, I was just looking.” you argue with a hoarse voice, as he slowly disappears behind you.

You absolutely _hate_ that you can’t see him anymore. Having him slowly saunter behind you makes him ten times more threatening.

When he reappears again from the other side of your shoulder, he seems to be a little closer to you, and the way he glares at you is even more menacing than before.

“Would you have grabbed the money with those filthy little hands if you knew I was watching?” he demands. The dark and threatening glint in his eyes is beyond unnerving, and you can tell he is contemplating all the possible things he could do to you.

“No.” you answer in blunt honesty, which you instantly regret. _Fucking dumbass._

“That’s what I thought. You _sneaky. Little. Rat._ ” he hisses sinisterly.

“Look, I was just curious, anyone would be. I’m not stupid enough to steal from you again.” you plead, and you feel your gut-stabbing anxiety suffocating your throat as he narrows his eyes at every word you stammer out.

He disappears behind you again, and you close your eyes at a vain attempt to calm down. _Relax, he's just intimidating you, he won’t do anything, you’ll be okay._

Suddenly, you feel his presence **right** behind you. You don’t dare to look back, but you can **_feel_** the warmth of his body. Your eyes widen in anguish, and you can’t stop your breaths from accelerating.

You gasp in surprise when you feel something cold and sharp pushing against your upper arm. A **blade,** you realize in terror. You don’t even dare to look down at his knife on your skin. You’re frozen, too afraid to move, too afraid of his unpredictability.

Your hairs stand on end when you feel him gently tracing his knife over your bare skin in an almost teasing manner, slowly sliding it up to your shoulder.

“Do you think I didn’t see the greed and eagerness in every part of your body when you were pawing on _our_ money?” he asks darkly, voice dripping with menace.

He slides his cold knife along the length of your shoulder, and you can feel the brief moment he passes the thin strap of your dress. The touch of his blade is only a mere, gentle caress, yet it is beyond threatening.

“Do I look blind to you?” he murmurs softly in your ear.

You’re paralyzed, and you have no idea whether he actually expects an answer from you or not. All you can focus on is his threatening knife, his menacing presence right behind you, and your raging heartbeat hammering in your chest.

When you don’t answer, he painfully increases the pressure on his knife as he drags it further up your shoulder. He uses enough force to make your breath hitch, but not enough to cut your flesh open.

 **“Do I. Look. Blind. To you?”** he repeats dangerously.

You quickly shake your head in a frantic way.

 _“Good.”_ he whispers as he reduces the force on his knife again.

He gently pushes your hair aside, and you shudder at the feeling of his warm breath softly grazing the nape of your neck.

His knife now descends your collarbone in agonizing slowness. The cool metal caressing your skin would almost be pleasant if the situation wasn’t so terrifying.

“Now, what did I tell you about obedience?” he purrs.

You know what he is doing. The easiest way to get use out of you is by cowering you into utter compliance and submission. Though there might be a rational use for this, you know he enjoys every part of it too. His sadistic hint of a smile during your interrogation suggests this might even be one of the reasons he let you go in the first place. The pleasure of having control over your life and tormenting you. He got a taste of it during the interrogation, and now he's here to further soothe his hunger, to further quench his thirst revenge.

And the worst is that there’s nothing you can do about it. You know that if you even _try_ to reach for your weapon, he won’t hesitate to finish you on the spot. His blade is already on your skin, you can’t do anything. There’s no way of escape, and all you can do is hope for his mercy.

He comes closer to you _,_ and with your hair out of the way, you can feel his soft breath scorching the shell of your ear.

 _“Tell me, (F/N),_ did I not make myself clear last time?” he whispers tauntingly in your ear, his cold blade now reaching the hollow at the base of your throat. His words are menacing and dangerous, but his voice is almost nauseatingly sweet.

Your entire body is on goosebumps. His aura is terrifying and threatening, but he goes about it in a devilishly enticing way to torment you. He could hurt you, he could murder you on the spot, yet, he resorts to teasing you with the mere idea. His words are poison coated with honey, sweet taunting threats that tease you with the possibility of excruciating pain. His cold blade is dangerously gentle, yet unpredictable. He could drag you to hell at any moment, and all you can do is watch how he claims complete control over you.

His sharp knife slowly glides up your throat, ascending your windpipe. When he reaches the soft skin under your chin, he applies more pressure, forcing your head back. As your head keeps going back and back, his lips ghost from your ear down to your jaw, and his raven hair starts to softly tickle your temple. He is making sure not to touch you, there isn’t one single place your bodies connect, but his proximity makes you dizzy. The contrast between the cool metal against your skin, and the warmth of his physical presence causes a fog to settle over your mind.

Your breath hitches as he slowly glides his hand around your delicate throat, the first direct skin-to-skin contact. He dangerously lets it rest there, like a venomous snake comfortably wrapping itself around the one frail spot that keeps you alive. He isn’t doing anything, he isn’t applying any pressure, but you know he could destroy you at any moment. He has you completely under his power.

He is putting you _right_ in your fucking place.

Your head is spinning. It’s too much.

His lips ghosting over the sensitive parts of your jaw. His deadly, cold blade dangerously kissing your skin with agonizing gentleness. His menacing hand teasing you over the edge between life and death. The lack of touch, yet the dizzying proximity of his presence. The taunting danger of his words as he completely dominates and overpowers you. The nerve-wracking unpredictability of it all.

_The mere fact you both know he could do whatever the hell he wants with you._

Your heart is racing, you’re suffocated by your helplessness and a storm of indecipherable emotions. You have no idea what you’re feeling, you have no idea what you should be feeling, but the traitorous part of your brain is stirring something within you you’re trying your hardest to repress. But the more you try to repress it, the more it fights back. The more it _wants._

Before you know it, your body has completely turned against you. Betrayed you.

**_Why the FUCK are you enjoying this?_ **

You shudder as his lips slowly ghost from your jaw back to the shell of your ear.

“ _Do I really need to repeat myself again for you?”_ he murmurs darkly, his deep voice vibrating against the shell of your ear. You can almost feel the movement of his lips against your skin, making you inhale a quivering breath.

When you don’t answer, he forces his blade further into your skin while adding pressure on your throat with his hand. At that, a sound escapes your lips, something between a whimper and a moan.

You immediately tense up, and his movements come to an abrupt stop.

_… **S H I T.**_

**It crept in your voice**. It might have been coated with a layer of fear, but the arousal in your moan was as clear as day. His reaction is enough to tell you he heard it too. He knows **exactly** in what state he managed to put you in, and the fact you tensed up only confirms what he already knows.

A wash of crushing shame flows over you as you hear a dark chuckle in your ear.

“And now you bring your weird fucking perversions into this?”

And you honestly wish you could bury yourself into the ground, shrivel yourself into pieces and **die.** This is SO unfair. HE is the one whispering things in your ear, what does he expect??

No actually, what the fuck is wrong with _YOU?_

Your face warms up as you frantically try to get yourself out of this horrifying situation. “What? No I don’t-…that wasn’t-” but it’s so painfully obvious, and your stuttering mess is making this about a hundred times worse.

He huffs in sinister amusement and pushes you away from him.

“Spare your energy. I’ll let your little hesitation slide for now. Now get out of my sight.”

When you turn around to face him, there’s something strange about his gaze, something you can’t quite place. But honestly, you’re way too embarrassed and shaken up to try to figure it out.

You quickly look away, grab your jacket and stalk to the front door, body ablaze from embarrassment.

In a matter of seconds, you’re outside again.

…Well that was fucking humiliating.

As you walk home, the only thing you can feel is crushing shame and disbelief. What in the actual **_fuck_ **possessed you to enjoy his little game? What cruel part of your traitorous brain decided to turn against you and surrender to that sadistic thug? The sound of your moan is still echoing in your mind, and you’re certain he isn’t going to forget about it any time soon either.

You can feel it already. This moan of yours is going to bite you back in the ass and haunt you for eternity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~EVIL AUTHOR LAUGHTER IN THE DISTANCE~
> 
> ~~Something tells me Levi could've gone about it a bit differently if he wanted to.~~
> 
> ~~Something else tells me that red dress, and the sweet, flowery, delicious scent of expensive soap might have sliiightly affected his decisions here~~
> 
> Also, I'm SORRY for giving you all such second hand embarrassment  
> (... or maybe I'm not xoxox)


	11. A Question of Trust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a 9,4k long chapter so makes yourselves comfy, grab some snacks and drinks, and enjoy this monster hehe ~~

Today is the much-dreaded day you will have to perform your first task with Levi, and you wonder why the ground cannot just simply do you the sweet favor of swallowing you whole.

The night of the embarrassing incident, a letter telling you when your next task would be was shoved underneath your door. Needless to say, the stark reminder that you’d have to see Levi again, and after only two days no less, wasn’t particularly _pleasant_.

Up until now, your waking hours have been entirely filled with the lovely occupancy of cringing to death, and saying it **sucked** can truly be considered a massive understatement. Every time you tried to think of something else, your brain did you the kind favor of harassing you again with vivid memories of your moan, and the dark chuckle in your ear that followed.

You want to blame Levi for the incident entirely, but honestly, you can only blame yourself. You still can’t fathom how you got to _enjoy_ his little session of wrath, and you wish you could slap your past-self so hard she would pass out.

Though, in your defense, you didn’t get **one** hour of sleep that night thanks to _him._ The night before wasn’t much better either. Your brain was turned to mush, and for the sake of your pride, you’d like to claim that that’s the only, and truly the ONLY reason you surrendered to him.

And honestly, he wasn’t innocent in all of this either. Sure, he made certain not to touch you more than necessary, but that doesn’t excuse him from tauntingly ghosting his lips over your skin like that. Who doesn’t get an intense feeling when someone gently pushes their hair aside and whispers things in their ear? Right? Or are you just this touch-starved?

And the way he was caressing you with his knife could honestly be mistaken for borderline sensual.

… Or maybe you’re just a masochist in denial.

Okay yes, probably the latter.

**_Ugh._ **

You suppose the core of the problem, the true reason why you disgustingly submit to him in the first place, is that he somehow manages to completely dominate you.

Honestly, it’s an issue. Since when do you let people crush you this easily? It’s infuriating. You **hate** to admit it, but he just simply seems to hold that power over you. You genuinely don’t remember ever being this afraid and intimidated by someone before, and you suppose it’s not for nothing he is such a well-known, reputable gang leader. You can’t explain it, but he exerts a certain dangerous, dominating aura, and to be fair, you _do_ have every reason to fear him. He has shown you his capabilities on multiple occasions, and the (below-)average thugs you usually deal with are nothing compared to him. He is on an entirely different level, and you have no idea how to go about it.

Still, you need to stand up for yourself more. Sure, your compliance is crucial at the moment, but you can’t just let him intimidate you like this. You’re **so** much better than that.

Is his unexplainable impact on you caused by the fact he unintentionally scared you as child? Is this some sort of weird long-term psychological consequence? Or does he just inherently hold this power in general? Or are you just weak?

Probably a good mix of it all.

Though you absolutely **refuse** to ever stoop this low again, you also know there is only so much you can do about it for now. You’re in a trial period, and you understand the importance of proving your compliance all too well. It’s a game you’ve accepted to play, and you need to push through, at least until you’re in the gang. Once you’re in, he won’t hold your life over your head anymore, and he can be damn sure you’ll stand up for yourself again.

Until then, you will simply have to deal with that fucking demon.

...................

With possibly even more reluctance than last time, you march out of your comforting home and make your way to the hideout. During your long walk, the only thing you can think about is _how the hell_ you’re supposed to face Levi again after what happened. What will you even say to him? How should you react when he brings up the incident to humiliate you? Do you try to deny that he turned you on because you’re apparently a fucking touch-starved masochist? Do you ignore him? Should you maybe tease him and make him uncomfortable to take the power back?

Well, he did immediately back off when you moaned, despite that evil chuckle of his. Is acting like a sexually deprived cougar woman who wants to tear his clothes off the only way you can keep him and his wrathful games at bay? You’re not sure whether the thought makes you want to laugh or cry, but the distraction slightly alleviates the anxiousness that is rivelling through your body.

That is, until you finally arrive at your destination and detect a faint sound of chatter coming from the hideout. With every step you take closer, you feel yourself getting more nervous. The sound is definitely coming from the hideout.

Instead of taking your final turn, you decide to peep around the corner to see what’s going on.

You curse in your mouth before letting out a long, exasperated groan.

Isn’t life **wonderful.** You count around six gang members standing and sitting around the stairway of the headquarters.

What a lovely day, truly. Nothing quite like having to face Levi after that horrific incident, AND having to greet a group of men who hate you.

Taking in a number of deep breaths, you try to muster up the courage to walk straight towards the group. Are you supposed to say hello? What if they don’t answer and just look at you with murderous eyes? Do you really want to go through that horrifically awkward experience? But if you ignore them, won’t that just be plain weir-

“How long are you planning on standing there like that?”

You gasp and turn around, before making direct eye-contact with a pair of steely blue-grey.

There he stands, a couple of meters away from you, observing you cowardly hiding behind the wall.

Fucking fantastic.

Levi’s arms are crossed over each other as he watches you in silence. In the dim lighting of the alley you’re both in, the sharp contrast between his black hair and his silver-blue eyes looks even more striking than usual. Though you absolutely despise him, you can barely deny there’s something entrancing about his features.

He clicks his tongue in irritation. “Come here already.”

You hesitate and give him a wary look. Maybe you should just turn around and flee. Truly, death seems preferable to having to face him right now.

He frowns at your hesitation, and that is enough to convince you to push your melodramatic thoughts aside and just do as he says. While you approach him, your treacherous eyes appear to have developed a sudden deep interest in your surroundings, because they seem to do everything to avoid looking at _him_. The events from two days ago are still too fresh in your mind, causing you to circumvent eye-contact even when you’re standing right in front of him. **_Fuck’s sake._** Why can’t you ever stop showing him signs of weakness.

“You ready?” he asks calmly, and your eyes snap up to him in surprise.

No snarky remark about the incident to humiliate you further? Nothing to indicate that mortifying shit even happened in the first place? No demeaning words about the fact you were too afraid to go to his hideout with all his boys around? No insults to intimidate you?

… Just a genuine, and almost caring question?

To your surprise, you notice his eyes don’t carry the same unsettling harshness they usually do. He looks stoic and tired, sure, but he isn’t showing any particular signs of ill-intent towards you.

Why? Did your successful spy-work end up convincing him to give you a decent chance instead of humiliating you as a hobby? Or has he come to the _-dare you say-_ rational conclusion he went too hard on you? Has he realized you’re a human being with her own problems, and thus her own reasons to act the way you do? Did he perhaps feel guilty for tormenting you the way he did?

His unexpected, softer demeanor indicates he might, but you don’t trust it at all. Maybe he is putting up a façade to gain your trust and crush you again afterwards, or maybe his hunger for revenge has only been stilled momentarily, and it will grow back again in a day or two. He has given you no indication he isn’t a heartless monster, so you have no reason to believe so.

He lifts an eyebrow, and you suddenly realize he has been waiting for an answer all along.

“Yeah I’m ready.” you mutter quickly. You push your cape open to show him the weapons strapped on your thighs. “I didn’t know what we were going to do today, so I brought these just in case. Is that alright?”

With your cape out of the way, you catch his gaze lingering on your corset for a fraction of a second before darting down to your knives.

Your face slightly warms up as you realize you wore this same attire when he caught you that first time, and you wonder if he isn’t remembering the moment your buttons snapped open as well. 

_He has seen half your breasts._

Actually no, scratch that, he has seen the _entirety_ of your breasts through that miserable excuse of a tank top when he interrogated you. He has seen your thighs, and **good grief** he has seen your nipples. Your neck and cheeks heat up aggressively as you realize Levi practically knows what your entire body looks like. He has seen every curve, every form through those thin pieces of fabric.

“That will do.” he mumbles as he scans your knives, but before he has the time to look up at you again and notice how flustered you are, you quickly turn around and march forward.

“Great, let’s go then.”

This is met with a brief moment of silence.

“… Where the fuck are you going?”

“W-what?” you stammer.

“It’s the other way, brat.”

He seems mildly amused when you turn around and mutter an “Oh, right.” under your breath. Luckily, he spares you the pain of observing you for too long, and he turns around to lead the way.

Making sure no one is in earshot, he starts to explain your coming mission while walking towards your new destination.

“The people we’re going to visit still owe me a large sum, and I’m here to collect. Your task is simple: if I give you a sign, you help me seize them.” he explains.

To your surprise, his tone is completely neutral and normal, and nothing in the way he behaves indicates that he is planning on tormenting you with _the_ incident. You doubt he has actually forgotten about it, but it seems he has decided to leave it in the past. You suspect the incident has made him slightly uncomfortable as well, because otherwise, you’re quite positive he would’ve loved to use it as a weapon to humiliate you. You feel your shoulders relax, relieved you’ve been spared from a second session of crushing humiliation, and glad you won’t have to act like a thirsty cougar woman to win whatever revengeful power-game is going on between you two.

Brushing your thoughts about the incident aside, you give him a nod, and he continues his explanation.

He explains that a small gang owns him some cash, and that their leader, called Axon, lives in the house you’re about to visit. There will most likely be other members there, which is where you come into play. Axon apparently always organizes his deals or meetings in his small backyard, and luckily, the backyard's wall faces the street. This means that his yard is directly accessible if one manages to climb up the wall. While Levi will discuss business with the men there, you will secretly wait at the other side of the wall. When he gives you a sign, - a tongue click -, you will have to jump over the wall and help to seize the men. Though the gang is very small, chances are there will be more than two people there, meaning you will likely be outnumbered. Levi explains that if that’s the case, you will just have to threaten the life of the one you’ve seized, in order to force the others to stay still.

Ballsy, in your **very** **humble** opinion, but Levi doesn’t seem to be worried about it in the slightest. You suppose you just have to trust that he knows what he is doing. Since he’s a well-known thug who probably has a good number of enemies, you doubt he is the type to make bad calculations. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be alive.

“You’ll have to be discrete about this. If they hear you coming, you’re fucked.” Levi lets you know with the most casual tone, as if he’s discussing what he had for breakfast.

Lovely.

You turn to him. “Why does Axon organize his ‘meetings’ - _or whatever they are_ \- in his yard instead of doing them inside? Isn’t there more risk of someone like me eavesdropping from the streets?”

“That’s true, and I wouldn’t risk it either, but then again, the fuckhead’s quite thick skulled. And most importantly, he always enjoys a little _company,_ and he prefers to keep those women from accidently catching any information about his sketchy activities.” he explains.

You’re already starting to form a vague image about what type of men you're going to be dealing with, and you can’t say you’re all too excited about it.

“Important thing in this mission is that you can show me you’re able to keep your head cool in situations like these, that you’re able to control and seize the men, and most importantly, that you can do this without hurting them. That last part is crucial, understand? You **cannot** , no matter what you do, shed some blood today. Doesn’t matter if you feel like the situation calls for it, just trust that I will handle it, and don’t do it. Use those blades of yours to threaten them, not to slice their skin. I can, you can’t.”

“Why?” you ask with a frown.

“If I hurt them, nothing happens to me because they don’t have the balls to directly confront me. If _you_ hurt them, it’s a different story. I’m already bringing you at risk by taking you there, and these guys are quite revengeful to say the least, so don’t go crazy on them. Since you’re under my command, they won’t dare to touch you if you don’t bring too much attention to yourself. But if you do, I can’t promise they won’t hunt you down.”

He turns to look at you. “I know you’re pretty good at making yourself untraceable and all, but they _will_ find you eventually since they know you’re connected to me. And trust me, these men are a different type of danger. So do as I say, and keep those blades clean no matter what happens, understood?”

You nod. You feel a bit nervous now. If Levi, of all people, says these men are dangerous, it means they truly must be. You can only hope they indeed won’t dare to do anything to you because you’re working for Levi. It also makes you wonder how much authority and power Levi has in this world of gangs and organized crime, a world you honestly know nothing of. Gary already told you that even the most dangerous gangs didn’t like to mess with him, and you’re starting to wonder who you’re truly dealing with. Why does someone like him even waste his time on you?

After a long walk of silence, albeit not an uncomfortable one, you enter what you know to be one of the most dangerous areas in the city. This says something, considering the entire Underground is one big fuckfest. The crime rates in the neighborhoods you’re passing are exceptionally high, and you know the vast majority of people who live here are criminals. The military police don’t often go down in the Underground in general, but from what you’ve heard, the last time some of them set foot in this particular area is around _two_ _decades_ ago. You also know they never made it back.

Even you, fully weaponed, knowing you’re good at combat, would never willingly wander here alone unless truly necessary. The streets are much dirtier, the alleys are darker and smaller, and just everything about this place makes you feel uneasy. Though you and Levi really aren’t on good terms at all, you have to admit you’re glad he is by your side right now. You know that with him around, not much can happen to you. When you discretely glance at him, you notice he doesn’t seem to be bothered by this place at all. He wears that same, endlessly apathetic and unreadable expression of his, and you wonder if this is something he has to do often.

Levi stops at a safe distance from the target residence when you arrive. The house is small, and just like the majority of buildings in the area, the walls are covered with huge cracks. The little residence seems to have once been white, but the walls have now turned into a deep shade of grey and brown.

Levi points at the wall that extends from the house, behind which lays the yard he mentioned before. Since the residence is at the corner of the street, it is possible to directly access it, just as Levi had explained. The wall seems a bit high, but you quickly notice the streets are filled with even more trash than usual: old boxes, craters, and all sorts of garbage you can use to climb up on.

Before you part ways, Levi hands you a piece of rope. “To tie them up just in case that would be necessary” he explains.

You accept it and mumble a thanks before taking off. You look back one last time and watch Levi walking to the front door, before hurrying yourself to the first craters you can find.

The street seems to be empty, so hopefully, you won’t arise any suspicions when you’ll be eavesdropping. After quickly looking around to verify that no one is looking, you grab the first crater you deem high enough, and you check if the planks aren’t rotten. You certainly do **not** want this thing to collapse under you when you make your move. Deeming it sturdy enough, you silently drag it with you to the wall you will have to climb up on. When approaching it, your senses are met with a smell of tobacco and opium. Looking up, you notice a smokey haze coming from the yard. It seems there are already people there, so you carefully pose the crater against the wall as silently as you manage.

You don’t hear Levi yet, so you quickly take a few steps back to guess whether the crater is high enough for you to climb on the wall, and when you deem it satisfactory enough, you go back and lean against it while keeping an eye on the street.

“Levi?” you suddenly hear from the yard. The man’s voice is deep and sounds surprised, but he doesn’t seem particularly delighted.

“How’s everything?” you hear a guy next to him saying. Judging by the mumbling slowness of his words, he is probably high from the opium. You can also tell he’s very close to the wall.

“Cut the small talk, you know why I’m here.” Levi snaps coldly.

“Of course, of course, no worries.” the deep voice reassures.

“Come sit down my dude, have a lil draw with us.” the high one calls.

At this point, you’re quite certain there are three gang members in the yard. The high one, who is on the right, the one with the deep voice, who is on the left, and lastly the person who must’ve opened the door for Levi, though he hasn’t said anything yet.

“Do I need to repeat myself? Don’t waste my damn time with small talk and useless pleasantries.” Levi responds sharply, voice calm but also with a dangerous impatience lingering in his tone.

“Alrightalright, got it.” the high one mutters before letting out a nervous laugh. Despite the fact he is high, he is clearly uncomfortable and on edge.

“We ran into some difficulties again, we don’t have it yet.” the deep voice explains. You can tell he’s clearly trying to keep things calm.

“I told you to get it by now. I don’t fucking care about your difficulties, Axon.” Levi responds with a razor-sharp tone.

“I’m sorry Levi, I promise this is the last time. We don’t have it now, but we’ll get it next week, don’t worry about it.” the deep voice coaxes, and if you understood correctly, that one must be Axon, the gang leader.

“If you’re going to be lying out of your rotten teeth, at least do it properly. I’m not going back until I get what I came for.” Levi responds calmly, but you can tell he’s starting to get pissed off.

The brief silence that follows feels like a second too long, and it makes you suspect that Levi is right: Axon is probably lying. You’re not sure whether he is lying about his claim that he doesn’t have the money, or about his promise to pay Levi back, but you suppose you’ll find out soon.

“Look, I’m willing to make a deal for an increased payback because of our lateness, if that’s what you want. Just give us one more week.”

Levi clicks his tongue in irritation. “I didn’t come here to negotiate. You’re fucking with the wrong person, Axon.”

_He clicked his tongue._

You rapidly but soundlessly climb up the crater and take a quick, discrete glance in the yard. Axon and the stoned guy are both turned with their backs against you. Levi is opposite to them, standing next to the man you suppose opened the door for him. The stoned one is the closest to you, meaning your chance of success is the highest if you try to seize him.

You don’t hesitate. You jump on the wall with your knife in your hand, and you leap on him. You quickly wrap your arm around his neck during the fall, which bends him back due to your weight, and which helps you to land more softly on the ground. A surprised grunt escapes his throat, but before he has the time to do anything, you quickly draw your knife against his neck using your free arm.

“ _Don’t move_.” you hiss in his ear.

He immediately understands what is happening when you harshly push your blade against his throat, and he has no choice but to oblige. You bump your leg against the back of his knee to indicate he has to kneel down, and he immediately does.

When you look up, you can see Levi has seized the one who stood next to him. The man is on his knees, with a knife held against his throat and with his hair held into a tight grip. You make brief eye-contact with Levi, and he gives you a barely noticeable nod. An indication you did well.

Axon, who isn’t seized, is looking at both of you with widened eyes, not daring to move. The one you’re holding isn’t moving either, and you suspect the main reason for their utter compliance is that they know they’re dealing with Levi. They probably can’t imagine you’re bluffing, and the guy you’ve seized is most likely convinced you wouldn’t hesitate to slit his throat if he would make one wrong move.

“ _Tsk. Tsk_. Move one more muscle, Axon, and I’ll gladly slit Xav’s throat before piercing my blade into that empty skull of yours.” Levi warns with a frighteningly calm tone.

“Okay, let’s all calm down, alright? It doesn’t have to come to that.” says Axon. He sounds nervous, and he’s visibly sweating from his bald head, indicating he is genuinely afraid of Levi. The sight is almost fascinating, considering the man looks much bulkier, taller and rougher than him. Yet, somehow, Axon gets completely overshadowed by Levi's presence.

“And that’s exactly why you’re going to tell me where you’re hiding all that fucking cash you owe me.” Levi threatens coldly.

“Just one more week, please, we promise we’ll get it fixed.” pleads the one you’re holding.

“Interesting, why do I have memories of your foul mouth spitting out those exact same pathetic words two weeks ago? Thought I told you I have no patience?” Levi states calmly, but with a dangerous, eerie menace dripping from his voice.

It’s incredible how even _you_ are slightly afraid of him right now. You can visibly see the fear in the three men in front of you, and you’re almost glad to see you’re not the only one who gets truly afraid of Levi whenever he gets into his dangerous mood.

“We ran into some issues, please understand.” the one your holding pleads.

“And how is that my fucking problem?”

There’s a brief moment of silence.

“Who the **fuck** do you take me for, huh? I know you’re still hiding that cash somewhere, so I suggest you stop playing games and tell me where it is before I lose my temper.” Levi grunts.

While Levi’s attention is on the guy you’re holding, you keep an eye on Axon, since he isn’t restrained. Drops of sweat are still running down his forehead, and he seems on edge like everyone else.

But there’s something else, there’s something… odd.

He’s too _focused._

You try to intently observe every of his body movements, but you can’t see his left arm from this angle.

It happens fast.

So fast that you have no time to yell out a warning.

He swiftly draws out a gun out of his jacket, ready to aim at Levi.

You don’t have time to think. Almost in a reflex, you remove your arm from the man you’re seizing, and throw your knife straight an Axon’s hand, in which he holds his gun.

The next moment, the air is filled with an excruciating scream.

Your heart stops. There’s _blood,_ a lot of blood, and there are two **_fingers_ **on the ground. You watch, eyes widened, horrified, and you instantly feel bile coming up.

Your eyes automatically dart to Levi, but he is already staring at you, eyes widened with an alarmed expression on his face.

This shakes you back to reality, and you realize you need to act _now_. You can already see the wounded Axon crawling to his gun again. You grab the man in front of you by the hair, and you slam his head at full force against the wall behind you in hopes he will black out.

You immediately run up to Axon and kick the gun away from him just in time. He tries to grab your leg, but especially after the shock he just endured, he is way too slow. You dodge him, and climb up on top of him while twisting his arm around. He grunts and curses in pain as you push his arm on his back at such an angle that **one** wrong movement will cause his bones to break. He tries to reach for you with his other arm, but you quickly kick it down with your leg, and keep your foot steady on his elbow. Though he is undoubtedly much stronger than you, your foot is placed right at the weak joint, meaning you can easily snap his elbow with a little bit of force, something you’ve learned during your self-defense lessons. With your free hand, you quickly reach for the rope Levi gave you, and before Axon can do anything, you quickly tie his wrists together.

“ **You filthy FUCKING WHORE-”**

Your head snaps to the man you attempted to turn unconscious just a moment ago, and you watch in horror how he rapidly storms at you while reaching for something in his pocket.

In an eyeblink, he is kicked on the ground, so fast that you barely even have the time to process that Levi leaped on him. The guy clearly doesn’t have time to understand what is going on either. He tries to stand up, but Levi grabs him by the neck and brutally slams his face on the ground, which is followed by a disturbingly loud cracking noise. A guttural growl tears out of the man’s throat, and he tries to struggle away. The attempt is futile, because Levi effortlessly forces him down and roughly grabs his arms to tie his wrists together behind his back.

You quickly scan the situation. They’re all cursing and groaning, but all of them are tied and seized. Probably the only thing that went according to plan.

You look at Levi tying the guy up, and once he’s finished, his eyes snap up to you like a whip. Unlike you, he still seems very calm and composed, but you can feel he is …. angry.

“Leave.” he orders.

“But-”

“I said, **LEAVE**.”

You nod and do as he says. You stand up, pass through the backdoor of the yard, and leave the residence through the front door again.

With irregular breaths, you quickly distance yourself from the house. After briefly looking around you, you decide to wait at the location where Levi stopped earlier, back when he pointed at the house.

With a moment left alone, you anxiously try to process the chaotic events that just took place. You let out a nervous, shuddering exhale. What the _hell_ just happened? It all took a turn for the fucking worst in only a fraction of a second, but there’s nothing else you could have done. And now, these guys will probably hunt you down. You’re _fucked._

Your mind then wanders to the memory of Levi’s expression. You could tell he was truly angry. You’re not sure whether he was angry at you, or angry that the situation went to shit because Axon tried to kill him.

Who are you fooling, he was definitely angry at you.

…Or was he? You didn’t have a choice. It was a split moment decision, and at that moment, the importance of following Levi’s rules really didn’t seem comparable to the importance of stopping Axon from drawing his gun out. He can’t possibly _blame_ you for that, right?

You’re pulled out of your thoughts when you notice Levi stalking towards you in the corner of your eye.

“Lev-“

Before you can even finish, he grabs you by the arm and forcefully drags you into an empty dark alley. You barely process what is happening as he pushes you against the stone wall with unmeasured force, and presses his knife against your throat.

“What the **FUCK** was that?” he growls.

“But-“

“Didn’t I **clearly** tell you to trust me, and to keep those blades clean no matter what? What part of ‘I’ll kill you if you make one misstep’ wasn’t clear?” he grunts. He seems royally pissed off.

“You can’t call it a misstep if I didn’t have a CHOICE.” you protest. “He was going to shoot you, I stopped him from doing just that. And in the end we successfully seized them anyway, and you got to interrogate them how you want.”

“Listen up you little **shit** , if we all just start doing whatever the hell we want, things are bound to go south. I don’t give a fuck how much you think you’re right. I don’t care if this happened to work out. You simply do as I say, always. That’s how it works around here. Not satisfied? Guess you’re not in then. And we both know what that means.” he threatens angrily.

You scoff in bitter disbelief, getting increasingly angrier at the fact that he doesn’t even _try_ to understand your point of view. Maybe it’s because of the aftershock, but you don’t find the energy to care anymore. You’re **done** with him talking down on you and intimidating you.

“ _Fucking_ hell Levi, the guy was about to KILL you.” you hiss furiously, your voice increasing in volume. “You can’t just ask me to sit back and do nothing. And generally speaking, you can’t ask me to blindly follow the plan at all times either. I know you want to be in full control, but what if one day you’re wrong? Surely, there has to be someone else who can back you up, who can come up with a second plan on sight if things get messed up. “

He looks at you incredulously, huffing in disbelief. “I’m close to slicing your throat open, and you have the absolute fucking **nerve** to say this? Are you actually okay up there?”

“Look, I'm sorry I disobeyed you, but at least try to understand my damn point here. Would you have preferred if I had just watched you getting gunned down? You only had a knife for fuck’s sake, and you weren’t even LOOKING at him.”

You try to angrily shove him away, but he pushes you harder against the wall and forces his blade further into your skin, making you gasp.

“Shut the **FUCK** up and listen to me. I noticed Axon was going to draw his gun out before you did, you idiot, I was already prepared for his move. I _also_ know he was about to threaten me, not directly shoot me, because he has his own reasons to. If you want this to work, you’ll have to start trusting me, because now, due to your reckless actions, I had to clean your damn mess up myself.”

You pause and swallow thickly.

“…What do you mean? What did you do?” you ask warily. You don’t like his exploding rage, and you don’t like where this is going _at all_. You have a feeling you’re going to hate his answer.

You can see him clenching his jaw in anger as he pierces you with his furious eyes.

“I had to kill them, (F/N). You cut the guy’s damn fucking fingers off. I saw it in their eyes, they were never going to let you get away with it. I might still need you in the gang you impetuous fucking brat, I’m not going to let all the time I spent on you be wasted just because you felt like making them hungry for your blood.”

You stare at him in disbelief as you take in his words. You suddenly feel nauseous.

… he had to murder the three of them? One by one? Because of you? _For_ you? You know you’re nothing more than a useful tool for him _at best_ , but the fact this is what he had to do to protect you makes you feel **terrible**.

“I-I’m so sorry.” you whisper. It comes out so softly that you wonder if he even heard it. “I just thought…” but you can’t find the words, you’re too afraid to cause even more damage.

He slightly loosens his force on his knife, but the darkness in his eyes does not falter.

“You’re lucky these rotting shitheads were the lowest form of scum, and that their lives meant nothing to me. You’re also _**very**_ lucky they were hiding the money in that building. I know your intentions were in the right place, but don’t ever fucking do that again.” he grunts.

He lets you go, but not before painfully pushing the blade on your throat one last time for good measure. In a reflex, you bring your fingers to your throat, and you notice there’s blood on them. He cut you.

A warning. A reminder of who you’re dealing with.

You want to say something, but when you look up again, he is already gone.

...................

You’re sprayed down on your couch, reading an old book you’ve probably already read ten times, and drinking a soothing cup of hot water.

Exactly what you need after that fuckfest from earlier.

When you came home, you found yourself in **_dire_** need of some mental distraction. Violence is nothing new to you, you have fought and wounded your fair share of thugs in the span of your life, but you’d be lying if you said today’s events weren’t particularly haunting. Cutting a pair of fingers off _and_ having three people getting killed in your name is not particularly a pleasant way to spend the day. Knowing you’ve driven Levi to murder a gang he does business with, is heavily gnawing at you.

You’ve been trying to rationalize things, reminding yourself that at that point, you didn’t have a choice, that you just tried to save Levi’s life, and that your reaction was the most rational one possible, you couldn't have known. You’ve been repeating to yourself that _you_ weren’t the one who decided to kill the three men, and that Levi thought they were such scum that their lives didn’t mean anything to him anyway. You’ve attempted to vividly imagine all the terrible things they could’ve possibly done in their lives, to try to dehumanize them.

Yet, none of it has successfully alleviated your guilt. The guilt of being responsible of three deaths, and the guilt of having increased Levi’s murder count.

Also, the stress of having partially fucked up your task.

Thus, after a good amount of stressing and wallowing in deep regret, you decided to spoil yourself with a soothing drink and some good old escapism in an attempt to keep your mind off of everything.

You can’t say it’s working all too well, because unfortunately, your book doesn’t carry the same immersive power it used to carry. Knowing the plot by head really takes the magic away, unfortunately. You’re in **dire** need of some new books, but you will have to wait till you’ve paid for Luna’s treatment before you can allow yourself to go on a good book hunt.

You’re just about to start a new chapter when you suddenly hear a knock on the front door.

You snap up from your couch with widened eyes, your entire body alarmed. The last time someone knocked on your door is approximately a decade ago, not long after your parents died. You suspect the neighbors wanted to see _who the hell_ was making loud drilling noises in the basement like the last owners of the house, but of course, you didn’t open. You couldn’t have anyone knowing _you_ were actually the one living here.

You stare at the door with uncomfortable wariness. Could Levi have spread around where you live? Did someone end up linking you to your parents? Could this be the military police?

Are you finally meeting the inevitable fate that has been in store for you all along?

“It’s me.”

_Oh._

… On second thought, a visit from the MPs doesn’t sound so bad after all.

Maybe if you just stay silent, Levi won’t know you’re here. Not only did you make him _furious_ a couple of hours ago, but the man threatened to slit your damn throat. Seeing him now is the LAST thing you’re in the mood for. Can a girl ever get a damn break?

“I know you’re in there. If you don’t let me in during the next couple of seconds, I’ll bust the fucking door open myself.”

**_Ugh._ **

You can’t help the exhausted groan when you get off your couch and lumber towards the door. _Here we fucking go again._

You reluctantly open the door, and surely, there he stands.

“I’m here to check out that little weapon collection of yours.”

“Couldn’t you have given me a little warning?” you snarl as you realize your robe is open, showing your slip dress underneath. A very old, but pretty thing you had taken from your mother’s closet many years ago, in which you sleep the vast majority of the time. Slightly embarrassed, you tightly wrap your robe around you.

If he notices, he gives no indication. “Why would I give a rat like you the chance to hide whatever she wants?”

You frown at his insult and invasion of privacy, but you have no choice but to let him inside. You suppose you should already be thankful he bothered to put the hood of his cloak on, making him less recognizable. You don’t think everyone in the city recognizes him, but he is quite a reputable criminal nonetheless, with many whispers and rumors surrounding his name. Though nobody knows you live in this house, you still prefer not having people linking your home to an infamous gang leader like him.

As he walks inside and you close the door behind him, the thought of what happened today intrudes your mind again, and you can’t help the feeling of guilt from flooding your body.

“About earlier, I…“

“Forget about it already. Just don’t do shit like that again.” he interrupts. He turns around to look at you. “I know you meant well, and I’m not denying your reaction was fast and well-calculated, but if I tell you beforehand with absolute certainty that I can handle something and that you need to trust me, I want you to do so. Understood?"

You cross your arms over each other. Though you’re glad to hear he isn’t blaming you for what happened, there’s something about his words that rub you the wrong way.

“You’re asking me to blindly trust you, but don’t you think that’s a bit rich coming from someone who is threatening my life?”

“And that threat will turn into reality if you keep running your mouth like that.” he warns with narrowed eyes.

You give him an eyeroll. “Can’t you see the contradiction here? How am I supposed to put my full trust into you if I don't even have the assurance you won't try to kill me at any moment you please?”

He sighs impatiently. “Listen, runt. I’m not asking you to trust me as a person, that would be hypocritical since I don’t trust you at all either. What I _am_ saying is that if you want me to accept you in the gang, you will have to learn to follow my every command during the missions. If you can’t do that, we have a problem. It was one of the main points of your last task, and you’re kind of ruining it for yourself right now, so I suggest you shut your mouth.”

“Fine.” you snap, trying your hardest to suppress the urge to launch yourself at him and strangle him on the spot.

He gives a dissatisfied tongue click at your visible irritation, and turns around to inspect your place. Slowly wandering around, he takes in every detail of his surroundings. He stops at your bookcase, and traces his fingers along your books.

“You read?” he asks.

For a moment, you’re not sure whether he is asking whether you like reading, or whether you’re _capable_ of reading. Not a strange thing to wonder, considering a significant amount of people in the Underground are analphabetic. There aren’t that many schools here, and the ones that do exist aren’t subsidized by the Royal Government. A lot of citizens can’t afford them, so it’s quite typical for children to learn how to read from their parents or guardians, which is what you did. However, a significant number of orphans don’t have that luxury, leaving them illiterate. 

You suppose that in this case though, Levi is asking whether you’re a bookworm or not, since he knows you aren’t illiterate because of the notes you wrote after spying on Karl. For a brief moment, you wonder whether _he_ is analphabetic, but you notice he seems to be reading the titles of your books, so you suppose not.

“I do read sometimes.” you respond. “It’s a good distraction, though I will have to buy some new books soon. Those are all old ones my parents left behind.”

He doesn’t respond. Instead, he traces his index finger over your bookshelf, collecting some dust in the process.

“Learn how to clean your place, brat.”

_Learn how to shut the fuck up_

But as getting murdered inside your own house would be quite the inconvenience, you decide not to say that out loud.

He continues his inspection, and as he does, you suddenly notice in horror that the bra you wore yesterday is still sprayed on the backrest of your couch. With all the luck you have, it’s one of your most sensual ones, one you made yourself. The burning red, lacy, see-through, and undeniably seductive fabric you collected from your grandmother’s treasures stares back at you, ready to cause you more discomfort and embarrassment than you’re prepared for.

Your eyes dart to Levi, who is starting to come dangerously close to your couch as he observes your living room. Your mind quickly rummages for an excuse to get him in your basement as fast as possible before he notices. You’re just about to open your mouth when you see it’s too late. As if he read your thoughts, his eyes dart towards the taunting red, lacy fabric. You can _see_ the moment of realization in his eyes, which is followed by a quick aversion of his gaze. You feel your neck warming up and decide you need to put a stop to this, **_now_**. You have no idea what else you have lying around, and you’re not going to wait to find out. Wouldn’t be surprised if some lacy underwear was scattered somewhere else, it’s not like anyone but you ever wanders in this house anyway.

Honestly, it’s his fault for breaching your damn privacy like this.

You quickly lead him to the basement, urging him forward, and he doesn’t resist. His expression doesn’t reveal anything, but his compliance shows the little incident might have made him slightly uncomfortable as well.

At least he won’t be scolding your cleaning habits anymore.

Once downstairs, you turn the lights on, revealing your large basement. Levi lets out an impressed whistle while looking around. His reaction doesn’t come as a surprise, your basement really _is_ big. There’s a reason why you have always done all your training here, whether it’d be fighting, knife throwing or bettering your crossbow aim. Your parents were far from the poorest in the Underground, and it shows.

Levi stops when he notices the wall behind the both of you, and his eyes widen ever so slightly.

“You made all of these?” he asks, sounding stunned.

You turn around and take in the sight that has him astonished. The wall is covered with a huge collection of weapons: throwable knives, throwable circular blades, butterfly knives, crossbows, you name it. The remaining weapons, the ones that are less impressive or can’t be hung on the wall, are displayed on a wooden counter underneath your pinned collection.

“Not all of them, some were fabricated by my father. You’ve probably already noticed the tools I use to make them.” you point at the huge workbench behind him, situated at the right side of the room. Multiple grinders, drills, lost blades, hammers, you name it. He walks towards it and studies the mess on your bench, while letting his fingers glide over the sharp blade of the angle grinder. He then briefly looks at the huge stacks of steel lying in the right corner of the room.

“So you weren’t lying after all.” he murmurs, more to himself than to you.

“You didn’t believe me, even when we were going down here?” you ask with a frown.

He shrugs. “I was convinced you were going to try something dirty. Lead me into a trap, maybe push me down the stairs and stab me in the back. I was almost looking forward to beating your ass, what a shame.”

You snort and roll your eyes. “Gee, thanks for the trust.”

He glances back at you from behind his shoulder, but he doesn’t say anything. You wonder what he is thinking, but as always, he is impossible to read. After a few moments of this strange eye contact, his attention goes back to all the weapons displayed on the wall. He turns around and slowly walks towards it, completely engulfed by the sight. You can’t blame him: this wall contains your best weapons. Your prettiest works of art, along with the most artistic pieces your father has ever made.

You watch him as he observes every single one of them. He looks fascinated, and you would be lying if you said it wasn’t stroking your ego. He takes one of the knives off, arguably the prettiest one, and studies it. The patterns on the blade and on the handle are so hypnotizing that you can’t help but stare along as if you’re seeing it for the first time. Looking just as entranced as you, he glides his fingers over the blue stones engraved in the handle, before gently tracing the beautiful patterns carved around the stones.

“This must be worth a fortune. Did you make it?” he mutters in somber admiration.

“No, my father did. He was too attached to this one to sell it, said it would be a family heritage. He really had a hand for knife art, his work was incredible.”

As he studies it further, you bring your attention back to your collection. You pick out your favorite work, and study it a little before handing it to him.

“I think this is my favorite one I’ve made. I fabricated it about six months ago. I’m definitely not nearly as good as my father was, but I have inherited his love for knife art. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll reach his skill level if I’m lucky.“ you chuckle.

He looks at you for a moment and takes your knife. He carefully studies it, turning and twisting it around in his hands, which you notice look surprisingly delicate compared to his lean arms. You watch him softly sliding his index across the carved wooden patterns, slowly following the curve of the handle. For some reason, you can’t keep your eyes off of his gentle touch. It's almost hypnotizing. 

“Impressive.” he mumbles absent mindedly “It’s beautiful.”

Though he does look entranced, it takes you a moment to believe what you’re hearing. _He called your work beautiful?_ You genuinely never thought he would _ever_ give you a compliment, and it has a bigger effect on you than you would like to admit.

“I assume you don’t use these to fight?” he asks while tracing his index finger across the blade.

You shake your head. “Too pretty to get dirty.”

You point at the left side of your collection. “I use these though, these are almost all of my throwable knives.”

He gently puts the two pieces back in their place and brings his attention to your throwables. He picks one out and twirls it around in his hand, making it dance over his fingers. The sight is as fascinating as it is intimidating.

Silver blue eyes flicker up to yours with an arched brow. “Can I?”

It takes you a couple of seconds to understand what he means, and you nod.

He faces the wall on which you always train your aim on, the one opposite to your collection. There are multiple targets drawn on there, covered with holes due to your ruthless years of training. To your surprise, he only takes about three steps closer. Is he going to throw from this far away?

He does it so fast you can barely follow his movements. The loud crashing noise that follows, angrily echoes in the room.

You squint your eyes.

This can’t be real.

You walk closer to the wall, because _surely_ you're seeing this wrong.

... Nope, it’s still there.

In disbelief, you watch how the knife is stuck _right_ into one of the eyes of the target. And the eyes are just **mere dots** you drew there for fun. From the distance he is at, they’re so small you almost have to squint to properly see them. And that, for your eyes. You have better eyesight than most, meaning that the average Joe should barely be able to see them from his distance.

Nah, it has to be a coincidence. There’s no way. Your aim is really good, yet you’ve never been able to hit one of the eyes from his distance. And this considering your **years** of training with your own knives. It’s already absurd he hit the target on his first try, without even getting a feel of your knife. Normally, one needs to _at least_ adjust to it, get used to the weight, train their brain to understand the dynamics of the weapon. Even if he had meticulously trained with your knife after he stole it from you on your first acquaintance, this one is designed differently. He’d have to warm up as well.

It was pure luck he hit the target at all.

Just as you just finish concluding it was a coincidence, the raven-haired behemoth behind you decides to take a second knife from your wall and throw again.

A loud crashing sound echoes into the room.

Blinking in disbelief, you can do nothing but stare incredulously at the knife trembling in the second eye. 

**There is no.**

**Fucking.**

**Way?**

You glance back at Levi with a shocked expression. It draws upon you that you have _no idea_ what this man is truly capable of. How are you even still alive after challenging him the way you did?

You remember Gary’s words, _“T_ _he man is a machine”_ . You thought he was exaggerating, but apparently, he wasn’t.

Suddenly, a realization hits you. You remember back when Levi almost killed you in the tunnels by throwing your knife right at your head. You thought you had just escaped death, but in reality, he never meant to kill you in the first place. He never missed your head at all, he just purposely hit your cloak for it to get you stuck. You’re not sure whether this is a relief of whether this just makes him a hundred times more terrifying. 

“Do you have experience with these types of throwables?” you ask carefully.

He shrugs. “Not particularly. I’ve used throwables a few times before, but not the same type as these. Except for the ones I took from you.”

For a moment you think he is joking, but nothing in his expression is indicating he is. He ignores your face of pure and utter disbelief, and casually continues as if he didn’t just show you the most **inhumane** performance you’ve ever seen.

“Your knives are well made. I’m beginning to think you might be useful to us after all.” he points out with a slightly mocking undertone.

Realizing he has no intentions of commenting any further on his absurd aim, you pull yourself back together and clear your throat. You recollect the knives, which to your embarrassment, takes all the strength and effort you have. The blades are pierced so deeply inside the wall that you barely manage to pull them out.

Walking back to him, you try to hide your astonishment and look him in the eyes. “Accept me in your gang and I’ll make more of these if you need them.”

He looks at you in silence for a moment. You know he must be thinking something, but he is like an impenetrable wall, impossible to read, his eyes fixed on yours but completely indecipherable.

After a few moments, he finally speaks up.

“We’ll see how you do on your next tasks.” His voice is cold. No ounce of an emotion, no hint of warmth.

… Maybe you were warming up to him a little too fast.

He spares you one last glance before turning around. “I have to go. I expect you at the headquarters in two days, you will perform your next mission then.”

You follow behind and lead him to the door. This time, he doesn’t look in the direction of your couch, and you feel slightly embarrassed when you glance at your alluring bra again.

When he’s finally out, you close the door behind him, and you lean your back on it.

You let out a deep sigh.

Who the fuck are you actually dealing with?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who else is thinking about that time Levi threw his blade straight at Kenny’s face in season 3? And Kenny was flying by, mind you. Like ok bye that shit was HOT. Levi could throw his knife at me with that impeccable aim of his and I’d simply mutter a ~thank you~ before perishing tbh
> 
> Also, I apologize for the later chapter update. Took a bit longer because this was a massive chapter (sorry 4 ur eyes, I should've maybe split it up) but also because college has SUDDENLY HIT ME IN THE FACE. Until now I was dodging my responsibilities like an expert, pretending university didn’t exist at all. However, it’s finally biting me back in the ass, and HARD. I have no choice but to start no-lifing on school work if I want to get my degree smh, ugh.
> 
> BUT, I am also the biggest procrastinator in the galaxy, meaning I will def be working on this story instead of studying loool. But generally speaking, the pace of the updates will be slower. No worries tho, I’ll still be a regular poster, but just not with the 2-times-a-week pace I’ve often held up until now. I also have to rethink and work on some parts of the coming plot, so I can't tell exactly yet which pace I'll be able to keep, but we'll see c:
> 
> Anyways, we got a lil bit of badassness (yes that’s a word from now on), a bit of anger and bickering (granted, with a knife at play), a lil bit of ‘woopsie that’s my revealing underwear’, and a bit of mutual admiration. ALL THE FUN STUFF. It seems things are slowly progressing hmmm  
> Anyways, hope you lovelies enjoyed, and have a good day!<3
> 
> (also, for those who have seen the new s4ep7 episode, does anyone else suffer from absolute brainrot bc Mappa Levi is so ridiculously hot??)


	12. A Moral Debate

The buzz of life around you feels like a vague background haze as you lock your front door, and make your way to the headquarters again. The children running around, the angry cursing and loud punching as you walk past city fights, the shattering of glass as a few drunkards carelessly throw their bottles on the ground, the merchants trying to lure you in: you barely process any of it, as you’re too deeply submerged in the memories of your last mission. The images are playing over again in your mind, just as they continuously have the past two days. Axon’s screams, the blood, Levi’s murderous eyes, the guilt.

But also, the fact Levi saved your life.

Ever since that mission, you’ve had an even harder time placing him. One moment, he slams you against the wall and cuts your throat, the next, he delicately holds your knives and traces them with utmost gentleness, calling them beautiful. This strong contrast reminds you of back when he interrogated you. He choked you, almost gave you a concussion, but also gently wiped your tears away.

The disparity of his actions is slightly unnerving, but also… intriguing. It shows he might not exactly be like the purely rough brutes you’ve had the displeasure of encountering during your life. However, it’s also obvious he isn’t a tender person at all either.

He is dangerous, and the fact Axon and his men were so terribly afraid of him only confirms that. Yet, you also feel like there might be more to him than that, but you don’t know to which extent. He’s a minacious criminal, he has ruthlessly murdered people, but of course, no one is one dimensional. Especially not someone like him.

You know it’s important to assess your threats, and Levi is by far your biggest one. The primary danger constantly looming over your life. Knowing this, you feel like it’s important to try to understand him and asses him, but unfortunately, this is proving to be difficult. You’ve hardly ever been able to predict his actions, and you know that’s because he isn’t a simple, dull man. Dull people don’t get to his position anyway.

And since you’ve always strategically avoided sharp and dangerous minds like him, everything about your situation is challenging.

You don’t know what to expect from him, you don’t know what he thinks of you or how his mind works, but you hope time will tell.

… If you live to see the days, at least.

So far, Levi’s tests have been a struggle. You haven’t been failing entirely, but you can’t say it’s been a big success either. You can only hope you will be able to prove yourself today.

Slightly nervous at this grim reminder, you try to momentarily push your thoughts aside and focus on your surroundings again. You know better than to let your guard down when you leave the busy roads and enter the less crowded neighborhoods.

As you march forward and wander through the calm streets and tight alleyways, nothing quite catches your attention. That is, until you’re somewhat closer to the hideout.

You can’t immediately pinpoint what makes you feel uneasy, but you feel like something is… off.

Every now and then, you hear small rustles, or very faint steps coming from somewhere in your vicinity. The more often you hear it, the less you believe it to be the normal buzzing of the city. The noises are… suspiciously repetitive, and suspiciously discrete.

Feeling increasingly more alarmed, you continue slowly walking forward, while trying to keep a sharp eye on your surroundings. When you suddenly hear the sound of a few careful and well-calculated steps close-by, you quickly snap your head back. You stare down the alley behind you, ears sharp and focused, but you’re met with nothing but emptiness and quietness.

You don’t like this at all.

Your heartrate is gradually increasing, and you’re starting to feel incredibly uneasy with every step you take in the empty, quiet neighborhood. Those soft steps, the soft shuffles around you, this can’t be a coincidence. Especially since you’ve been hearing faint noises coming from somewhere in front of you as well.

Too alarmed now, you stop. You’re in a little open space, surrounded by houses. If someone is following you, they can either appear from the small pathway behind you, from the short tunnel to your right, or from behind the wall situated a couple of meters in front of you. You sharply observe the three spots, darting your eyes from one place to the other. You try to keep a cool head, but the dreadful feeling that something is terribly wrong is getting louder by the second.

Your heart jolts when you hear a very faint sound coming from the wall in front of you.

There’s someone behind that wall. You feel it, you _know_ it. And whoever it is, is good at making themselves pretty noiseless.

You narrow your eyes and keep your attention steady on the wall while reaching for your knife underneath your cape.

Before you have the chance to demand the person to show themselves, they decide to do so on their own. A figure steps forward, eyes sharply fixed on you.

You recognize him immediately. His blond locks, the darkness in his eyes.

He is the angry gang member who was chasing you during the second time you sabotaged a heist. He is the one you were able to shake off by climbing on a container before pushing it down.

He watches you in silence, and the dark glint in his eyes confirms what you already know: you’re in trouble. Most likely in deep trouble.

You hear someone behind you, and you quickly snap your head back. After a few moments, a figure comes out of the shadows. Brown hair, slim face, and with a similar cold glint in his eyes. Another gang member.

He regards you from top to toe, with a bitter expression on his face.

“Going to our hideout, aren’t you?” he asks dryly, as he starts to slowly approach you. You notice the blond starts to do the same.

You look back and forth at them. The blond is coming from one side, the brunet from the opposite side.

“What do you want?” you demand warily, while sharply bouncing your eyes from one to the other. You’re fully aware of the fact that them coming from opposite angles is strategically planned, allowing you to only focus on one at the time. Unfortunately, it’s working. You feel extremely uneasy.

“What we _want_ , is to get rid of you, as you can probably already tell.” the blond responds coldly.

“Did Levi send you?” you ask, suddenly hit by a peak of anxiety. Is this because you partially fucked up your last task? Did he end up changing his mind about you?

“No. We’ve decided to put an end to this shit on our own, since he can’t be reasoned with.”

“You’re defying his orders? Why?” you ask carefully with a frown, while stepping backwards to get a better angle at both of them as they keep approaching you from both sides.

“ ** _Why?”_** the blond one scoffs incredulously. “Because you’re a damn hindrance, that is. Continuously robbing us, getting Boris kicked out, ripping our fucking group apart. And we’re supposed to just sit back and accept you in?”

Boris. He was the loudmouth you always stalked. You completely forgot about him, and you haven’t even thought about what the consequences could’ve been for him after you had snitched him out to Levi.

And apparently, you’re also tearing the group apart, which you weren’t aware of at all.

You swallow.

“I genuinely didn’t mean for all of that to happen and I’m sorry, but I’m not your enemy anymore. I have no intentions of ever robbing you again.” you try to coax calmly. Your pulse is rapidly increasing, but you force yourself to hold a calm demeanor. Having to remain composed in dangerous situations like this one is nothing new to you.

The brunet huffs bitterly. “We have no reasons to believe you, and even if you’re telling the truth, we couldn’t care any less. You’ve done enough damage as it is. Boris getting kicked out because of your actions is already bad enough, but _you_ replacing him? Absolutely the fuck not.” he spits, looking at you with disgust.

They keep slowly approaching you, and while stepping back, you start to realize that you’re getting cornered. The wall behind you is getting increasingly closer, and with every second that passes, the danger of your situation gets more and more apparent.

You look back and forth at their dark eyes, and you realize the chances you’ll be able to talk your way out of this are practically zero.

When they start to get too close, you draw your knife out, and they immediately do the same.

“Look, I don’t want to hurt you.” you try to reason, voice calm and steady, trying your utmost best to hide that you’re truly anxious inside.

The blond lets out a hollow, dark chuckle. “Oh, we’d love to see you try.”

Underneath your cape, you keep your free hand on one of your throwable knives. Though your aim is significantly worse on your non-dominant hand, you’ve trained it well enough to be viable. You know that if you’re fast, you might be able to get out of here, even though you’re certain these men are very skilled.

But you also know that if word has it you wounded or killed two gang members, you’re dead. You’re fucked no matter what you do, and this mere fact makes your heart beat uncontrollably.

The brunet dangerously flips his knife in his hand and sinisterly grins at you while approaching you. “Show us what you got, princess.”

You look back at them with a pounding heart, trying to focus on every single one of their movements. You’re sweating, you’re afraid, but your mind is sharp and ready. Hand steady on your throwable knife, you prepare yourself to launch an attack the moment they make a move.

**“That’s enough.”**

The three of you snap your heads towards the voice at the same time, all of you startled.

The moment you recognize the familiar face, the worst of your dread dissipates. Levi’s watches from a distance, eyes glacial on the two men. You notice that both their smirks disappear _instantly_.

“What the fuck did I tell you two?” Levi demands, voice laced with venom. His gaze is steadily fixed on your attackers, but the dangerously dark hue in them makes you shiver.

You look back and forth at the two men, whose expressions are becoming increasingly more alarmed. Their eyes are widened, and they suddenly look terrified.

The blond one swallows, and when he decides to speak, the anxiety is seeping out of every single one of his words. “L..Levi, look, we just can’t let her-“

He stops mid-sentence as Levi’s glare somehow becomes even more terrifying. His eyes are stormy and poisonous. It almost looks like if one of them dare to stutter out one more wrong word, it will be their end.

The two are frozen in place, and you have a hard time processing how quickly they went from being cocky and menacing, to looking like a pair of shivering lambs. None of them dare to say anything, or dare to move. They’re clearly afraid of Levi’s wrath, and the silence around you becomes increasingly more unsettling by the second.

“Get the fuck out.” Levi spits venomously.

The two men quickly nod, and hurry themselves out of his sight.

Levi follows them with razor-sharp eyes, and the moment they disappear, his ice-cold stare falls on you. Your breath slightly hatches at the sudden eye-contact and the unnerving coldness of his glare, but you don’t move.

After a few seconds, he glances down at your knife, which you’re still holding tightly. At this, you quickly draw it back on your thigh strap.

When you look up again, his expression is still as cold as ever, eyes sharply fixed on you. Without saying a word, he jerks his chin for you to follow, and turns around.

You hurry yourself to him and silently walk behind, still uneasy and nervous. You want to say something, but you’re almost too afraid to do so. He’s clearly **not** in a talkative mood, and you’d be lying if you said you weren’t particularly afraid of him right now. Nevertheless, you somehow manage to murmur a “Thanks for that”, but he doesn’t say anything in return.

As you keep walking, you can’t stop thinking about the angry words and expressions that were thrown at you earlier. What is Levi even going to do to those two? Is he just going to leave it at this, or is he going to kick them out like he did with Boris? Or maybe something worse? The mere idea makes you feel really guilty and uneasy. As much as you thought these guys were scum, you can’t shake the thought that you might be responsible for the loss of three members now. If the others hear about this, they will hate your guts even more. You can’t really fathom Levi kicking out old members for _you_ , but at the same time, it isn’t that implausible. He has killed three men to prevent you from getting murdered, after all. You know he simply did that to protect the _potential_ you might provide to the gang, but still. That doesn’t change the facts.

Maybe those two were right. You’re just a hindrance, ruining the dynamic of the group.

As you both walk in silence, the thoughts keep getting louder and louder, and it’s becoming unbearable.

You hesitate for a bit, but you really don’t want to be stuck with this uncomfortable uncertainty for any longer. After taking a deep breath, you scrape up enough courage to voice the burning question that is lingering on your tongue.

“They aren’t getting kicked out… right? Or are they?” you mutter, unable to stop the feeling of guilt from infesting every one of your words.

He doesn’t respond.

“I mean, if they do because of me, I...” You don’t even know what you’re trying to say, all you know is that you _really_ don’t want to be the reason the group is falling apart and losing its members. “…And they said that loud Boris guy go-”

“Don’t flatter yourself.” he interrupts sharply. “This isn’t about you. If they don’t listen or if they create havoc, they’re out. It’s that simple.” His voice is steady and cold, and he doesn’t even spare you as much as a glance.

Right. Rude as fucking ever, but you’ll take it.

His words don’t erase the guilt you’re feeling, but at least he is kicking them out for his own personal reasons. You suppose it would be an insult to his authority if he would just let them rebel as they please, and it would also hinder his plans.

Still.

Though his choice is nothing personal, you are definitely the reason all of this is happening in the first place, and the idea that the other gang-members might think along those lines as well makes you extremely uncomfortable.

You glance at Levi. Silent and unreadable, devoid of any kind of warmth, as per usual.

You let out an inaudible sigh. Somewhere deep down, you have to admit you may be a little bit disappointed that he just confirmed your initial thoughts: this wasn’t a personal favor, you’re only a mere tool he is keeping alive for use, and the only reason he threatened the men who wanted to harm you is because he needs to keep his group under control. You truly don’t understand why you’re even disappointed. Of course he wouldn’t give a shit about you getting hurt. He is threatening to _kill_ you, why the hell would he care at all? You are a mere potentially useful object to him. Nothing less, nothing more.

And when an object turns out to be useless, it gets thrown away.

Will he really just kill you if he deems your performed tasks unsatisfactory?

Somewhere, you hope he wouldn’t go through with it. Maybe your brain is just purposely being delusional to cope with the danger you’re in, but you honestly feel like the burning hate has simmered down a bit. On both sides, really. During the first mission, the mutual hate was definitely **boiling** , but during the last mission, you felt like something had shifted ever so slightly. Maybe that could be enough to spare you some mercy?

… He did threaten to slit your throat though.

… Also, when he told you your disobedience might not get you in the gang, he added: “ _And we both know what that means.”_

Sounds like a pretty clear threat.

Well, never mind.

 **Still,** you know something _did_ change. During the first mission, it felt like aside from possibly wanting to test you, he mainly just wanted to torment you. He also clearly didn’t mind the chances of four massive dogs shredding you to pieces. Last mission however, it seemed like he genuinely wanted to give you a decent chance at proving yourself. He’s clearly starting to value your life now. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have murdered three men to prevent them from killing you.

You can’t exactly pinpoint when or how this shift happened. When you arrived at the hideout for the last mission, he was pretty neutral to you, for the first time ever. Maybe he just didn’t want to fuck up the mission for his own purposes, but you suspect there might be more to it. Maybe he changed his mind about you after looking over your spy-work. After all, you probably exceeded his expectations, and it was proof of your usefulness. Of course, it could also be that he felt some sort of remorse after threatening you. Though, that would mean he has a soft heart somewhere, which you find hard to believe. Another possibility is that his unquenchable desire to threaten and intimidate you simply evaporated because it resulted in some unexpected sexual tension last time. Maybe your moan saved you after all, as ironic as that is.

Honestly, the possibilities are endless, and he is too hard to read to find out.

The only thing you _do_ know is that his shift in behavior somehow felt even more apparent after you fucked up your task. He was definitely not as cold and as harsh as usual when he came by your place. You highly suspect one of the reasons for this is that your first instinct during that mission was to save his life, despite it endangering yours. You suppose doing so gave him a sign your intentions are genuine, that you aren’t some sort of evil spy sent to rob his gang and destroy it, or whatever the _hell_ he was thinking when he first interrogated you.

Not that he seemed to be particularly happy about your attempt at saving his life, but you digress. 

The **point** is, you’re pretty certain he genuinely wants to give you chance now, especially since he now knows you aren’t lying about you fabricating your own weapons. Doesn’t matter whether he sees you as a mere tool or a human being, it’s already a step forward. A step closer to him not getting rid of you on sight if you do anything that doesn’t quite please him. Furthermore, Furlan doesn’t seem to have a problem with you existing, and somewhere, you feel like he wouldn’t just let you get murdered without a valid reason.

…Right?

Or do you just have too much faith in people?

Either way, you know you shouldn’t get ahead of yourself either. These are _optimistic_ assumptions you’re making. You don’t doubt Levi would still destroy you if you would do anything seriously wrong, and it’s best to assume he would try to kill you if he deems you useless for the gang too. After all, he has no guarantee you won’t stand in his way again if he lets you go, and he doesn’t strike you as the type who would let any feeling of mercy hinder the safety or the success of his gang.

For now, it’s best for your own survival to shove that bit of hope aside, and simply assume that any mistake will get you killed.

¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨

When you and Levi finally enter the hideout after a walk of silence and a thorough session of thinking, Furlan immediately notices something is off.

His eyes dart from Levi, to you, to Levi again.

“What happened?” he asks with a hint of concern.

“Vic and Sebastian.” Levi informs him with a bored look.

“Oh.” Furlan mouths. He seems to immediately understand what happened, and his eyes travel to you.

“You okay?” he asks calmly.

You nod, but you’re sure your uneasiness is visible on your features.

“If it’s any consolation, these two were the only ones who were being difficult. The rest of them are a lot more neutral about you joining the gang. Sure, some complained at first, but they didn’t create a loud havoc like Vic and Seb.” Furlan explains as he walks back to make himself comfortable on the couch.

You bite your cheek, slightly relieved by his words, but still not entirely convinced. “Is that why they mentioned I’m ripping the group apart?” you ask carefully.

Levi behind you scoffs dryly, and Furlan rolls his eyes.

“I shouldn’t even be surprised by their dramatic claim.” Furlan groans after letting out a displeased sigh. “What they see as a group division, is in reality just the others not being as passionately against you, and not going along their protesting whines. There were some discussions at first, but it has died down and they’ve been the ones trying to refuel it.”

You take a deep breath. _‘Not being as passionately against you’_. You’re not sure how positive that’s supposed to be, but you’re already glad to hear you won’t have to deal with an entire group of Vic’s and Seb’s.

Still, the whole thing is quite worrying.

“So just to be clear, they _don’t_ all want to skin me alive?” you ask. If the answer is yes, you might have to flee before it’s too late.

“No.” Furlan confirms with a chuckle. “Their opinions about you seem to vary, but don’t worry, it’s really not half as bad as you think. I guess you’ll just have to convince some of them in time. You might have to show them that you can be a reliable help, but also that you’re not someone to be fucked with.”

As you think this through, you’re first hit with a feeling of nervousness. You aren’t too excited about having to prove yourself once more. Then, you’re hit with a feeling of hope. That attack from earlier really made you feel like the entire gang hated you, and like there was no hope for you to ever belong there. But now, when you listen to Furlan’s calm voice and his comforting words, you feel like you might be okay. You will just have to bite your self-doubt away, and show them your place.

You look into Furlan’s blue eyes, and you’re suddenly shaken by a sense of gratefulness. Despite the fact you’ve been stealing from him, and despite the fact he has no reason to trust you entirely, he's still helping you and motivating you.

With that thought, a small, warm smile forms on your face.

He smiles back a little, and shrugs. “Besides, some don’t seem to mind at all. One of the boys is even real excited to have you in the group.” he adds with a chuckle.

You suddenly notice Levi’s slightly tensing up in the corner of your vision. You barely catch it, and when you turn to look at him, his expression seems to be as unreadable and stoic as usual.

Realizing it’s probably nothing, you shrug it off and bring your attention back to Furlan.

“That’s a relief, honestly.” you respond with a soft smile.

“Alright, enough sweet talk.” Levi interrupts as he walks to the couches, “I don’t have all day. Let’s get to business.”

You suppress the slight irritation at his blunt attitude, and follow him to the couch. As you do, you notice Furlan’s smile faltering, though you’re not sure why.

Once the three of you are seated, Levi speaks up.

“This time, we need you to extract some information out of someone.”

You pause.

“…You don’t mean spy-work?” you ask hesitantly.

“No.” his tone is sharp and steady, and you notice his glare has gained an unsettling edge.

There’s a moment of silence.

… You have a feeling you’re really not going to like this.

¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨

You stare at the little house in front of you. The brown brick walls, the little wooden front door, the windows, and the light casting through them from inside.

You wonder what he is doing, the man you will have to torture. Is he resting? Eating? Writing a letter to a loved one?

The mere thought makes your heart shrivel.

A normal, regular man. A man who got into the wrong situation at the wrong time, and who now holds dangerous and valuable information that Levi’s gang, and many others, need. An innocent man who got himself into a huge mess he never wanted to be a part of, because he accidentally walked in on his thug of a cousin and overheard the wrong information. A human being who got his life ruined that day, and who, due to that unfortunate event, got dragged into a mess that spiraled out of control. A mess filled with blackmailing, threats, gangs, and crimes.

And now, you’re here to add to his misery.

You don’t want to do this.

At all.

You asked Levi if he has ever done any abhorrent things, if he has hurt people, abused someone, turned into a brute after getting forcefully pulled into the world of organized crime.

But Levi gave you nothing. “ _Not that I know of_.” is the only thing he replied.

You pretty much pleaded, you almost begged him on your knees to give you _something_. Because there must at least be **one** bad he has done, right? Even if it’s small.

But all your pleads were answered with a stone cold stare.

Nothing.

He’s innocent. Just in an incredibly unlucky situation. Hit by the cruel force of misfortune. And to make matters worse, he is wounded. One of the brutes he’s had to deal with due to his terrible situation, broke his leg two weeks ago.

You observe the man’s house, in a moment of calmness before the storm.

Honestly, you’re not even sure you can do it.

Until now you’ve always wounded with the objective of protecting yourself. Well, not always. On numerous occasions, you’ve purposely gone overboard when dealing with monstruous people. You’re not some sort of harmless, soft child. You’ve inflicted your fair share of pain onto others. You’ve robbed a countless number of people, you’ve wounded, you’ve sliced skin with your knife, but you’ve always done so for a reason. You almost exclusively target people who you think deserve it, and you’ve been doing so ever since the day you became skilled enough for it. The only people you purposely wound for other reasons than self-defense are pedophiles, rapists, abusers, or all types of brutes who deserve every bit of suffering going their way.

Is it moral to mercilessly hurt people who have done monstruous things? Is it moral to dehumanize people who act inhumane? Who knows. Maybe not, but such a high sense of morality isn’t a road you want to ride on, or else you'll die real quick.

You’re not an angel. You’re not going to pretend like you have some flawless morals, whatever that may be. You’re morally grey, just like the majority of people, but you still have principles. And torturing an innocent man with a broken leg who seemingly just turned out to be in an unfortunate situation, does not abide to these principles at all.

You asked Levi if simple threats would work, but once again, his answer was the last thing you wanted to hear.

_“You could try, but it might not work. If you decide to do so, you’ll have to find a way to show him you’re truly capable of performing your threat. He’s keeping his secret because he’s being threatened of having his family murdered. So, unless you can somehow show him you could do more damage than the people he’s in trouble with, you’ll have to stick to… other methods.”_

Levi might as well have put an end to you then and there, because this is probably your biggest weakness. You hate hurting people who have done nothing wrong. Hell, you’re still haunted by the days you stole from poor or old, weak citizens. You cried the first time you stole some bread from an old woman who looked equally as starved as you, and you cried over that memory for many years after.

How are you still alive while being such a weak wretch? Who knows, but it might not last long anymore, because Levi is hitting you right in your weakest spot.

Seems like the cruel rules of _survival of the fittest_ , or rather, _survival of the toughest_ , have finally come for you.

Levi is truly testing everything. He evaluated your fabricated weapons, he challenged your desperation for money, and he tested your skills and behaviors. He tested your stealth, your ability to spy, your compliance to his orders, your ability to seize people, and your reactions during dangerous missions.

But this, you didn’t expect. You should have, but you didn’t.

This might finally truly be the end of you. If the man starts to plead and beg for mercy, you’re not sure you’ll be able to go through with it. You need a good reason, you need something strong to allow your mind to dehumanize your victim, but of course, Levi isn’t providing you with any of it. And quite frankly, you don’t think it’s a coincidence.

You remember Levi’s words, telling you to be compliant, telling you to listen to his orders and to obey no matter. This seems to be the ultimate test to check whether you’re actually capable of it. A test to see whether you’re willing to put your humanity aside for the gang. Just as you had initially feared, you’re required to be brutal and heartless if you want to be part of such a feared group of criminals. You have to prove you have no morals when it comes to obeying Levi’s commands. You have to be a machine.

Because if you want to survive in the world of organized crime, you have to be a cold monster like him and his men.

The sadistic, cruel fuck. You know he is sharp and particularly good at reading people, which means he’s probably fully aware you have a high chance of failing. He knows you’ve never killed someone, so you’re sure he has already deducted you aren’t some heartless machine. And now is his time to exploit that.

Earlier today, you felt like he genuinely wanted you in the gang. But now, that thought is eradicating.

Has his thirst for revenge come back? Does he want to push you to your doom again?

Or is this nothing personal? Does he just need you to be inhumane, like he needs all of his members to be?

You don’t know. All you know is that of all tests, this is the ultimate one. Physically it is the easiest one, being face to face with a simple wounded man who probably doesn’t have much fighting experience. Mentally, it’s by far the hardest.

You know a significant number of people in this city could easily do it. You’ve seen enough cruelties to back this statement up. But you? The longer you stare at the house in front of you, the slimmer your chances seem to be.

You take a deep breath. It will be incredibly hard, but you have to push through. Maybe this is exactly what you need. The ultimate experience that will scar you to the point you will finally toughen up mentally, to the point where guilt won’t be an emotion you will constantly have to deal with anymore. Maybe this is what you need?

Either way, you can’t permit your feelings of empathy and compassion to control you right now. You need to survive. Not only for yourself, but also for Luna, Gary and Finn. You can’t let your emotions get the best of you.

You can do this. You have to.

You close your eyes for a moment to clear your mind. For the coming time, you can’t be _you_ anymore. You have to turn yourself into a heartless machine. You have to push your emotions aside, you have to push _yourself_ aside. All your morals, everything that represents you, it all needs to go.

With dark eyes and an expression of stone, you approach the residence. With every step you take, the storm within you becomes harder to repress.

When you’re in front of the front door, you take a deep, shuddering breath.

Then another one.

You lift your hand up, and before you have the chance to think everything through again and back out, you knock on the door.

You wait, your entire body tense, every single part of you carrying the weight of dread and foreboding.

The moment the door opens, you feel like you’ve been dunked into ice-cold water.

_Please no._

All you can do is stare at the pair of big, green, curious eyes that are looking up at you. The little girl standing in front of you must be around four or five years old.

_Fuck._

You knew the man’s family was being threatened, but you assumed Levi was talking about his parents, his siblings, his aunt or uncle, just anyone but a young daughter. You don’t know why you didn’t entertain the idea. You probably just didn’t want to.

And now, you’re standing in front of a little child. Her light brown, curly hair is up in two little pigtails. She’s wearing a baby blue dress with flowers embroidered on it. It’s clearly worn out and quite old, reused and resold many times, but the tissue is beautiful nonetheless. Her big eyes are observing you with a sense of curiosity, confusion, and maybe a hint of wonderment.

“Mino! I told you to never open the door by yourself!!” you hear a man from behind scolding, with a clear spark of concern in his voice. After a few moments, he finally arrives, limping and struggling.

“But daddy you shouldn’t walk!” the little girl retorts while looking up at him, looking just as concerned as her father. The sound of her cute, child-like voice alone breaks your heart.

“Yes I should. Mino, don’t ever do that again. We’ll talk later.” he warns sternly while glancing you over. Then, he quickly lifts her up and holds her on his hip, though he’s clearly struggling because of his broken leg.

“What can I do for you?” he asks warily.

You swallow. You can’t even manage to say anything, all you can do is stare. You take in his green eyes, which are a similar shade to his daughter’s eyes. His eyebags. The tired lines tracing his features, undoubtedly due to all the misery he has been dealing with. The fear of losing his daughter and the rest of his family. You look at his curly, brown hair, not quite the same color as his daughter’s, but the resemblance is still obvious.

Your look at the little girl. The way her little fingers are clasping onto the fabric of her father’s shirt. The way she’s observing you, taking you in like children her age take the entire world in with untamable curiosity.

The way they’re holding onto each other. The way she resembles him so much.

Everything within you shatters.

“Are you okay? are you lost?” the man asks worryingly. His expression has gone from wariness to concern.

You could cry.

“What is wrong, my dear? You look frightened, are you alright?”

You almost whimper in despair. The worry in his voice, the care he feels for a stranger like you, who is just here to destroy him.

You would genuinely rather have Levi hunt you down and murder you, than having to enter, lock the man’s daughter up, torture him, and have his screams ring through his house, haunting his daughter’s ears for eternity.

Even muffling his screams to prevent her from hearing too much, is incredibly inhumane. Not only is there a chance she might hear it anyway, not only will she see his state after you’re done, but torturing an innocent man who just wants to protect his family is monstruous.

_You can’t do it._

What else can you do? Threaten him? But what would you have to do to come off as a bigger threat than the ones who are threatening him right now? Would you have to physically grab his little daughter and tell him that if he doesn’t give out the information, you’ll kill her? Would you have to hold a knife onto her throat? Force her trembling, sobbing body in place while you keep a knife on her skin?

You could fucking cry.

The way he’s holding her, the way he’s worryingly looking at you _right now_ , asking why you aren’t saying anything. Asking you again if everything is alright, offering you help. He seems like a good person. He doesn’t deserve any of this.

You can’t do it.

You look at his daughter again. The green leaves embroidered on her little dress match her eyes, and you can already imagine how happy she must’ve been when she got that dress. Her cute child voice, asking her father if you’re okay. Her big, confused eyes. The eyes of a young child who doesn’t deserve any of this.

You can’t do it.

You can’t do it at all.

As you’re staring at the both of them, you decide you would much rather die at the hands of Levi than do whatever monstrosities you’re supposed to do.

And with that thought, you mumble out a vague excuse before you can stop yourself. You tell them you got the wrong address, that you were a bit confused, but that you’ll be going now.

When you finally hear the door shutting behind you as you walk away, you let out a long, shuddering exhale.

You did it, you officially fucked up your task.

Not only did you miserably fail this mission, but you also already partially failed your last two tasks. This is it. Levi won. You can now finally say with certainty that you have fucked it all up. You’re not strong enough to be in the gang at all.

You can’t believe it. You’re a criminal in this city, the _least_ you should be able to do is threaten someone. Hell, you should be able to do much worse, like the rest of this cursed place.

You’re a fraud. A fucking failure.

Yet, you don’t regret it. There is not one single part of you that wants to go back and do the things you were asked to do. Even if somebody else will probably do it in your place, it doesn't change anything. You can’t and you won’t do it yourself.

But that alone, makes you want to scream in frustration and defeat. The fact you aren’t even capable to go back and fix things. The fact you’re too weak. Why did you even think you would ever survive in a world of organized crime?

You wouldn’t, and that’s why Levi isn’t going to let you in, and that’s why he will put an end to you instead.

You’re sauntering forward on autopilot, slowly distancing yourself from the house, wondering what the _hell_ you’re supposed to do now, until your thoughts are interrupted by a familiar voice.

“At least you’re consistent at fucking things up.”

Your eyes snap up to the voice, and you’re suddenly looking straight into Levi’s eyes. He’s standing in the shadows, in an alley between the two buildings you’re just passing. He meets your gaze evenly, unmoving and unfazed.

 _Of course_ he would be here to watch from a distance. You’re not even surprised.

You huff bitterly and stare back at the ground, jaw tensed.

“I just couldn’t do it.” you mutter sourly through your teeth. As you do, your desperation turns into anger. You’re angry. So damn angry. Angry and disappointed at him, at yourself, and at the unfairness of it all.

Your confession is answered with complete silence.

You look up at him, and watch how his silver irises are stuck on you, observing you in silence.

"Did you know he had a child? And did you know she would be there?" you demand.

"Yes."

You scoff in anger and disbelief. The cruel fuck.

“Are you happy? Is this what you wanted? Find my weakness so that you can **_finally_** get rid of me?” you ask bitterly, voice poisoned with rage. Rage at the world, rage at _him._

He continues to observe you in silence.

You stare him resentfully in the eyes. “Go ahead. I don’t even care anymore. If this is your goal, if this is what you truly wanted all along, then go for it. Or at least you can try, because I won’t let you kill me this easily.”

“You think I’d murder you in cold blood because you showed mercy to a helpless child? I’m not a fucking monster, you know.” he grunts with irritation.

You frown. What is he even talking about? Yes he would? And yes he is?

“My goal wasn’t for you to torture this guy and extract the information. I couldn’t care less about it, I already know what he’s hiding.” he declares blandly.

“I-... _What?!_ ” you snap in disbelief. **The son of a bitch.**

He looks you steadily in the eyes, unfazed by your reaction. “I didn’t actually want you to torture him or keep his child hostage. I just wanted to see what you were capable of. Test your humanity. If you had gone through with it, that would prove your dedication and obedience, sure, but it wouldn’t necessarily have been better. In fact, it would have been much worse depending on how far you’d go.”

You huff in disbelief. “Are you fucking serious right now?”

“I need to know what kind of people I let into my group, don’t you think?” he drawls with a lazy shrug.

You grit your teeth in rage. “That little girl’s life isn’t for you to toy with, how dare you play games with these people?! How fucking dare you play a game like this with **me**?”

He silently observes you with the tiniest hint of a smirk on this face, and _holy shit_ you’re about to explode in rage.

“What the fuck is that smirk? What if I had gone through with it, huh? You think the trauma inflicted on him and his child would be worth your stupid little game?!” You’re yelling at this point. You don’t even _care_ that you’re out of line here. You’re READY to throw hands. You were just mentally preparing for your end anyway, you couldn’t care less about it anymore.

“I highly suspected you wouldn’t go too far.” he shrugs. “Besides, it would have been your own decision.” he continues, voice calm and unbothered.

“No it wouldn’t? You can’t just pretend like you have no responsibility in this. You’re threatening me with my life, for fucks sake. Doesn’t sound like much of a choice to me.”

“Yet, you didn’t go through with it.” he points out without missing a beat.

_Oh the fucking smartass._

You grunt in frustration. You’ve had **enough.** Before you can manage to stop yourself, you stalk towards him, grab him by the collar of his shirt, and harshly push him against the wall behind him. To your surprise, he lets you. he doesn’t even resist one bit. Your hand is pushing at his chest as you look at him in bitter rage. He just calmly looks back, curiously observing your every reaction, as if you’re some sort of fascinating animal he discovered in the wilderness. His eyes trace every single one of your features, curiously taking in all your emotions, all your pain, all the despair that is still bubbling within you from earlier, all the fury and rage in your eyes. This mere act only makes you more furious.

“Last time you wanted me to obey no matter what, and now you suddenly want me to follow my morals? Make up your damn mind already you **fucking** asshole. How does that make any sense?!” you hiss furiously as you tighten your grip around his collar, which for some reason doesn’t even seem to bother him.

He observes you with rapt attention, with an expression you don’t think you’ve ever seen before. You’ve seen maliciousness, coldness, rage and disinterest. But now, there’s a hue of intrigue in his eyes. His grey irises are intently boring into yours as if he just discovered something that fascinates him.

“You already know the answer to that.” he replies calmly.

You’re completely taken aback. Shocked by his answer, and shocked by how relaxed he remains. You’re yelling at him, cursing at him, pushing him against the wall in anger, and he is just … keeping calm? You were actually ready to fight him for once, and he just…. doesn’t do anything? As if he agrees with your reaction, or understands it?

You don’t even know what to say anymore. You have no idea how to react.

And the worst of it all is that you understand what he means. He is right, you **_do_** know the answer to your question, because what he wants **_is_** logical. He wants you to listen to his orders while still being a human being. Something you genuinely did not expect from the person who is rumored to be one of the most vicious gang leaders in the city. You thought he would _want_ an inhumane machine at his command. Instead, he looks almost glad to see you didn’t even manage to enter that house. How is your weakness a good thing to him?

You stare at him, with so many questions, but none that pass your lips.

“Softer heart than I thought. Interesting.” he murmurs, more to himself than to you.

You want to say something, but you’re flabbergasted.

He puts his hand over yours, calmly ungrasps your fingers, and removes your hand from his collar. He doesn’t even do it forcefully at all, his movement perfectly matches the calmness of his demeanor.

He then slowly but gently pushes you away from him before turning around and taking off, looking completely unfazed.

“You passed the test. Congrats, runt.”

And all you can do is stare at him, utterly speechless, as he disappears into the city.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WELL WELL, seems like Levi is back to his mindfucking games.  
> Bigass chapter again with a lot of internal monologues, because there’s a LOT to think about. A lot of confusion, a lot of emotions and internal battles, and a lot of braincracking because Levi is an enigma.
> 
> Also I apologize for the increasingly slower updates, unfortunately ya girl is getting fried, roasted, baked, SAUTEED in the pan by the source of her impending doom: her master thesis. SOMEBODY SAVE ME LMAOOOO HELPPPPP  
> Ok I seriously need to STOP pestering you all with my uni complaints BUT what I want to say is that my deadline is in about 3 months, so until then the updates will be on the slow side ripppp (after that I still have exams but at least I won’t get harassed on the daily by my thesis promotor and professor constantly catching me doin nothin & procrastinating smh ~embarrassing~)
> 
> If I somehow manage to compensate for the hundreds of hours I’ve spent last semester being a useless couch patato instead of working on my thesis (NO JOKE IM NEARLY 200 HOURS BEHIND HAHAHAH LORD HAVE MERCY ON ME), and I somehow manage to “”finish”” it by the deadline (beginning May), I’ll be back to faster updates!!
> 
> 3 months is a lot but we have to stay strong and persevere thru the pain together<3  
> I try to write during my study breaks tho and I really can’t wait to post future chapters, and to read your lovely and encouraging comments!! It’s honestly my main source of serotonin, so the updates will definitely not be stopping. But due to the workoverload and fucked up amount of crushing stress, it will just be a bit on a snail pace like I said last time, and the updates will get increasingly slower in time until I reach the deadline. But don’t give up on me tho xoxo 
> 
> Ok enough about my complaining ass  
> I hope you cuties all have a great day <3 Rest well, stay hydrated, and remember to get all your vitamins ~ (it’s an order btw, there’s NO room for discussion here)  
> Bai xxxx


	13. The Duality of Hearts

Head restlessly swirling with thoughts, you slowly make your way through the somber streets of the city. You should probably return home, but quite frankly, it doesn’t even feel like the safety and comfort of your own house could calm your mind right now. Thus, you find yourself aimlessly wandering around, hopelessly trying to process the events from earlier, but failing to do so.

Honestly, what the -and this cannot be stressed enough- **_fuck_** kind of day was this?

First, you got attacked by two gang members. Then, you were asked to torture an innocent soul, which led you to be in a state of absolute dread and desperation. After an extensive emotional crisis, these feelings were magnified by a factor of ten when you had to face your victims.

And finally, it all turned out to be a joke. 

A joke that, in retrospect, makes a lot of sense. Because as much as you hate to say it, you can somewhat understand why Levi deceived you this way. Of course, you’re still enraged by the fact he put you through so much emotionally distress, and mostly, by the fact he risked two innocent souls of getting hurt. He may have highly suspected you wouldn’t take it too far, but it’s still slightly enraging.

Yet, when you try to put your anger aside, you can see why this was an important test. If you were him, you'd probably want to know what type of person you would let in your gang too, considering the number of heartless brutes that roam the streets.

What messes you up the most, though, is that he didn’t only make you reveal a part of yourself, but he also revealed a part of himself as well.

And quite frankly, you have absolutely no fucking clue what to think of him anymore.

The more you think about all the events you went through, the more exhausted you feel. The fear, the dread, the stress, the emotional pain, the sadness, the rage, the confusion, it’s all coming back at once.

With an exhausted groan, you stop your aimless walk and give up. Before you know it, your legs collapse until you’re sitting on the ground, knees kissing your chest. For a moment, you close your eyes and allow all the emotions from today to relentlessly storm within you. It’s only after letting out a deep shuddering sigh, and allowing everything to sink in for a bit, that you open your eyes again.

You don’t even notice them at first, the children around you, numbly sitting in the same dark alleyway as you, clothes dirty and expressions lifeless. It’s a sight you see every day, after all.

But when you see them, actually _see_ them, not as a sad sight that is part of the everyday city streets, but as actual individuals who have a story of their own, it hurts.

It really hurts.

You can’t look away, just like every time the realization hits you. You hate that you have no choice but to get used to the sight. You hate that children who have no place to go and are scattered and lost on the street, are a mundane, normal view for everyone, yourself included.

The alley is dead silent, save for the muffled sounds of the city, coming from busier streets further away. It’s only a faint background noise, a reminder that while everything here is somber and quiet, life around you keeps going.

The sounds of life taking over the somber silence, as if it isn’t there to begin with. Maybe that’s why misery is so easy to ignore.

None of the children and adults lifelessly sitting on the filthy tiles are saying a word. You’re looking at them, but they don’t notice. They’re staring down in silence, mind numb and gone.

It breaks you, just like it always does whenever you have the guts and the strength to actually _look_ at these people, and face reality. You desperately wish you could help them, but you’re barely getting through yourself, and this helplessness alone causes a heavy feeling to burden your chest.

You wonder how they will turn out. How many more years of misery until something within them snaps? When they grow up, will they be able to do what you could not? Will they be able to torture an innocent man, and possibly scar a child to save their own skin?

Because if there’s one thing you’ve taken from living in the brutal city you call home, it’s that all the misery that surrounds you is an endless cycle that feeds itself. A vicious circle where children are surrounded by cruelties since birth, and thus become those same cruelties that will rot others around them.

After all, the Underground is the poorest and most corrupt district that exists, pestered with crimes, diseases, malnourishment, abuse, and painful losses. A population buried deep beneath the ground, safely hidden for anyone to see. Too ugly to be acknowledged.

It is no wonder people here tend to lose their minds and their hearts.

So who is to blame, really? Isn’t it inevitable for many to turn into monsters if that’s what it takes to survive? If you’re born drinking sewage water and starving, surrounded with violence and poverty, what choices do you have? It’s a slippery slope, you’ve seen it all too often. The first act of violence is to calm an aching stomach for a piece of bread. Then, it is to sustain respect as a form of self-protection. Eventually, it becomes an of act pleasure to stay at the top.

You’ve discovered throughout your life that the ones who are truly to blame for all of this, are the ones in power who purposely keep this place poor and corrupt for their own benefit.

And while they’re sipping on their expensive champagne, you’re all out here destroying each other.

This city, which has been ruined beyond repair, has one major rule that everyone knows implicitly: _the survival of the fittest_. If you want to live well, if you want to have a decent income and live a life without getting crushed by others, you have to allow your heart to harden. Becoming cold and cruel is a survival tactic, and for many, it is a necessity. It’s not that there aren’t any warm hearts and soft souls in this city, it would be incredibly naïve for you to claim so, but from everything you’ve seen, you can confidently say that a large part of the population has lost their humanity a long time ago.

And a significant part of the ones who haven’t, either barely make it above water, or get crushed until they’re eventually forced to lose themselves, or a part of themselves.

And you? You have no idea where you stand in all of this. Life has changed you, but it hasn’t taken away your essence. Not entirely, at least. Not yet. You’ve had the fortune of being sheltered, protected, and loved, for more than half your life. Your entire life even, dare you say. Even when you lost your parents, you were still loved by your sister, you were still protected by your sharp senses, warning you whenever any danger was around, and you were still sheltered by the home your parents left behind.

An unfair balance.

One that allowed the Underground to morph you enough to survive, to do crimes for a living and toughen up, but not enough to crush your emotional vulnerability.

Though you’ve undoubtedly become stronger over the years, you’re also painfully aware of how soft you still are deep inside. The unconditional love you were raised with, something most children in this city don’t have the luxury of growing up with, has been engrained too deeply within you. You remember your parents always telling you that you were born with a soft heart. In your own words: you were a weak child. They tried to force your strengths to bloom, but they always saw your empathy and good heart as one of your strong points.

It was only after they passed away, that you started to believe they might have been utterly wrong. Your emotional vulnerability wasn’t a strength, it was a curse.

Though your compassion has brought wonderful things in your life, like Gary, it has also brought you into deep trouble numerous times. Your general vulnerability has made you afraid to form any kind of connections or interactions with people you don’t know, which in turn has resulted in your loneliness. Your fear and self-doubt, though you don’t really let it control you anymore, is always there to haunt you. It’s a little voice you always have to consciously bite back, and the main reason you’re able to do so is probably because your love is stronger than it. Your love for your parents, who would’ve wanted you to keep going. Your love for your sister, Finn, and Gary, who need you to keep taking care of yourself and keep on surviving.

You had thought that by now, all of that would be gone. You thought you would’ve turned into a cold-blooded criminal, like so many people seem to be in this city. But you haven’t. And you don’t know if this is because these weaknesses of yours are inherently part of you, and thus impossible to push out of you, or if it’s because you’ve been protected so much by your special genetic heritage and your parent’s training, that becoming cold blooded is unnecessary for your survival. You suppose it’s a mix of both.

You’re still left with so many questions, though. Is it really impossible to just thrive decently in this city without excess privileges like yours, while still having a heart? Is it really true that many have become heartless, or are they just good at pretending they are? Do they feel the same emotions you feel?

Even if more people feel a sense of remorse than you may think, how many of them would still be capable of torturing a wounded man and potentially scarring a child to save their own skin? How many have had to brutally learn since birth that survival is the only thing that matters, no matter what?

Are you inferior and weaker for not being able to fully adapt to that line of thinking, or is it on the contrary something you need to hold on to? Is it a curse, or is it a precious gem you’re blessed with, one that can be torn away from you at any point?

Those emotions you can’t seem to get rid of, can you really call them weaknesses?

Your rough environment has been telling you they are.

Your parents always preached otherwise.

And Levi, someone who you’re sure has seen way too many horrors in his lifetime, undeniably more than you, does… not see them as weaknesses?

He surely doesn’t seem to mind that part of you. Why? Why the fuck? You thought he was heartless and sadistic, but last night’s events indicate that he’s not, and you genuinely don’t know what to think of him anymore.

His words are still ringing in your ears.

_“Softer heart than I thought. Interesting.”_

He didn’t say it in a degrading way. He didn’t tell you it would be your doom. He didn’t say it made you a weak person, or that because of this, you had no place in the gang. Instead, he seemed intrigued. He seemed…

Relieved.

And it’s absolutely fucking with your mind.

Right when you thought his spitefulness would reach its peak, right when you believed he would destroy you for attacking him, he was the warmest he had ever been with you. And that, only because he saw how incapable you are of harming people who truly don’t deserve it.

Which must mean he follows that line of thinking. At least, to a certain extent. There’s no other explanation, right?

How can he possibly be so merciless and so merciful at the same time?

Well, to be fair, the same could be asked about you. You aren’t exactly _merciful_ to the brutal scum in the city either, yet, you still find yourself occasionally sobbing at night whenever you vividly remember the poor and weak citizens you robbed when you were younger. The memory of their panicked or watering eyes when you stole their food, which they needed just as desperately as you, is still enough to break you.

One hell of a duality, that is.

And you’re starting to suspect Levi might deal with a similar duality too.

Brutal, but not a rotten heart necessarily.

Could his ice-cold demeanor, and the chilling rumors that surround him, be a façade? If it is, it seems you might be overestimating how many people in this city are completely heartless.

The mere realization that you truly don’t know what actually lies in people’s hearts, is hurting your brain.

You let out an exhausted sigh as you try to wrap your head around the concept. _Maybe, many here are secretly more humane than you think. Maybe, **he** is more humane than you think. _

Quite frankly, you don’t think you’re the only one whose brain got cracked. Judging by the way Levi observed you with fascination and intrigue, you suspect the feeling might be mutual. It's like at that moment, something between you changed, and it happened on both sides. He saw you from a different angle, and so did you.

Maybe he isn’t half as bad as you thought he was, and maybe his gang isn’t either. After all, it seems he only wants to work with people who show a basic sense of compassion. The fact he’s close to someone like Furlan, who on first sight seems to have a pretty good heart, only confirms that.

And maybe, if you succeed your last mission, you will be alright.

Feeling more determined now, you scrape up enough energy to haul yourself to your feet. You quietly glance at the children in front of you, before letting out a shuddering exhale.

You will be back. It’s a silent promise you’re making. If you manage to pay your sister’s treatment, and the gang’s income gives you a slight leverage, you will be back here to give whatever leverage you have. Even if it’s just a piece of bread.

But for now, there is nothing any of you can do but keep pushing.

...................

After a somewhat restless night, you return to the hideout for your last mission. You knock on the door, and this time, Levi opens up. The moment your eyes meet, you feel your body slightly tensing up. It’s only been a day since you last saw him, and your last interaction was quite… peculiar. It isn’t particularly normal for you to curse at people and slam them against cold walls, after all.

Not to mention you’re still thoroughly mind-fucked about him in general.

He looks at you for a second, and without saying a word, he jerks his chin for you to come inside.

Furlan, who is sitting at the table at the back of the room, looks up and greets you with a smile as you walk in. He then waves for you to come over while Levi closes the door behind you.

“Ready for your last mission?” he asks, as you join him and seat yourself around the table.

“Depends on what it is.” you answer lightheartedly.

Levi walks over to join both of you at the table. “You’ll have to put your robbing and fighting skills to use this time.” he explains calmly as he seats himself across from you.

His steel eyes flicker up to yours once he’s comfortably seated. “I know you managed yourself well when fighting Axon, but I want to see what you’re fully capable of.”

“Alright, I’m listening.” you murmur, slightly doubtful but also a bit thrilled and curious now.

“We want you to rob two men who are going to sell a large batch of drugs tomorrow.” Levi explains. “Technically, you could try to discretely pickpocket them, but I wouldn’t count on it too much. These shitheads aren’t the type to easily let themselves get robbed or get messed with in general, so I’d take my best weapons if I were you.”

He gives you a small look before continuing. “Don’t be afraid to hurt them in the process. They’ve already messed around with us before, so really, we’re just returning the favor. We don’t care how you do it, but get the money and bring it to us.”

“I can take it they aren’t innocent this time?” you ask, unable to retain the snark in your voice. You still haven’t forgotten about last time, and you aren’t going to pretend you have.

Levi scoffs, and you can’t tell whether he’s irritated or amused. Maybe both.

“Far from that.” he informs you with a dark undertone in his voice.

“ _Really_ far from that.” Furlan accentuates.

“We handpicked the lowest fucking scum we could find, so do whatever you want. They’re absolute sacks of dogshit.” Levi elaborates bluntly.

“Great.” You can barely hide the amusement in your tone. Such an elegant way with words, he has.

You suppose it makes sense that after testing what you’re capable of doing to weak, innocent people who don’t deserve any pain, Levi wants to see what you can do against the ones who _do_ deserve it.

You look at both of them for a moment. “What kind of things have they done?” you ask. If you’re going to harm these men, you would rather know to what extent they deserve it. Whenever you rob someone yourself, you always go to Gary for horrific rumors about the cruel acts they’ve performed in their lives as well. It’s the only way you can easily dehumanize them, and harm them without feeling guilty. 

Levi seems to immediately understand what you need, because he proceeds to tell you every gruesome crime they’ve committed, without sparing you a single detail. He really isn’t sugar coating a _single_ part of it, and **holy shit** it’s even worse than you thought it would be. A countless number of unjustified murders, brutal sexual assaults, numerous cases of child abuse, black mailing, torture, the list goes on and on. While he keeps hitting you with the absolute gruesome facts in the most casual way, you feel yourself getting slightly nauseous.

He’s in the midst of explaining how the two thugs have forced a number of innocent people and children into drug addiction to feed their business, when you decide you’ve heard enough.

“-Alright alright, I get it.” you interrupt quickly with a grimace of disgust. “Thanks for the details though, good to know they’re absolute fucking monsters.”

There’s a faint twinkle of amusement in Levi’s eyes. “I can trust you won’t be held back by too much sympathy this time?”

You scoff. “Don’t worry, your explanation was convincing enough.”

“Good.” His eyes on you are dark, but he seems satisfied.

“As you can probably tell, they’re very dangerous people, so be careful.” Furlan warns.

You turn to him with a slightly concerned frown. “How skilled are they exactly?”

“They’re ex-members from the Katan gang, don’t know if you’ve ever heard of them, but they’re quite good at combat and they’re absolute fucking animals. So make sure they don’t catch you.”

“Lovely.” you mumble sarcastically.

Furlan smiles a little. “Don’t worry, Levi will watch over you. If it turns south, he’ll intervene.”

You quirk a brow and glance at Levi, whose eyes are still steadily fixed on you. Your gazes lock, and for a moment, you don’t know what to say. Honestly, you’re quite surprised you’re promised his protection. You thought he would leave you to your own devices.

After a brief moment of silent eye-contact, you look away. Staring into his eyes for too long still makes you somewhat nervous.

“Alright.” you say, voice determined. “I’ll do it.”

...................

You’re crouched on a rooftop and hidden behind a large chimney, while sharply keeping an eye on the location Levi and Furlan gave you. If what they told you is correct, the deal will occur any time soon. For now, your plan is to follow the two drug sellers after the deal, and attack once they’re alone.

You’re quite anxious, if you’re going to be perfectly honest. You may regularly target criminals and thugs, but you’ve always avoided the more dangerous ones.

Well, that is, until you targeted Levi’s gang, but you digress.

Though you’re nervous, you also find the rush to be slightly satisfying. You don’t have _too_ much to panic about, after all: those fuckheads won’t be expecting your attack, and additionally, you came well prepared. Before coming here, you took Levi’s advice to heart and grabbed all the weapons you might need. Five throwable knives, one crossbow, and one regular knife. It should suffice.

You glance around for a sign of Levi, but you don’t see him. Did he even bothered to come? You’re not even sure at this point. Either way, you can’t depend on him. This is your moment to prove what you’re capable of, and you’re _not_ going to fail.

After a few moments of waiting around, you suddenly hear footsteps approaching. Two men are marching towards the location of the deal, but they don’t match the description Levi and Furlan gave you. When they stop at the location in question, you conclude they’re probably the buyers. Knowing you will have to get into action soon, you pull your black handkerchief up to cover your face up to your nose, and continue waiting.

After a few more minutes, you hear two other people approaching. You squint your eyes, and immediately recognize them as the drug sellers you will target. As they approach the other two men, a wave of anger and disgust floods through you. All the gruesome details Levi gave you are still fresh in your mind, haunting your thoughts. You’re already itching to grab your knife and avenge their victims, but you keep still and patient nonetheless.

Their time will come.

You quickly retreat behind the chimney when the four men suddenly start to gingerly look around, clearly making sure they’re alone. The next moment, you hear them murmuring and talking to each other, and you dare to take a quick glance. Though they’re being quite discrete, you don’t miss the way one of the sellers takes out a huge bag of questionable looking substance out of his pockets, and hands it to one of the buyers.

Then, another one.

And _another_ one, holy shit.

Levi really wasn’t joking when he told you it would be a large batch. 

Once the deal is finally over, you wait until the two buyers are out of sight before starting to follow your targets. With both their backs turned against you, you follow them from a distance, slinking as quietly as possible from roof to roof. Body tense and sweat prickling down your spine, you focus all your energy on carefully controlling your movements. You ought to be extremely careful. If they notice you, you’re fucked.

It’s only once you reach a building that is small enough to easily climb down, that you decide to do so. After your feet softly hit the ground, you carefully draw out the crossbow strapped on your back, and continue following the two men in utmost quietness. The neighborhood you’re in is dangerous but empty, meaning that if you attack soon, you will be able to get away without any witnesses. You’re fully aware you have to make use of this, because you really can’t risk anyone interfering.

Knowing this, you slightly quicken your pace to get closer, while simultaneously looking around every so often to make sure no one else is in sight.

Suddenly, you hear the two men stop. You freeze, eyes widened at the thought they might have heard you, but you quickly realize they stopped to discuss something. They’re both standing in an empty alley, murmuring and whispering things to each other, though you can’t understand what they’re saying.

Slinking forward, you carefully approach the alley until you’re right around the corner. Judging by how close they sound, you can tell you’re only a couple of steps away from them. This mere fact makes your pulse quicken rapidly, but you force yourself to keep your head cool. If you make a single noise now, things will turn horribly wrong.

Daring to take a quick peep around the corner, you notice both their backs are turned against you. It seems they’re both recounting the money they just received, and calculating the total sum out loud.

This is your chance.

You’re close to them, they’re not looking at you, _and_ they’re focused on counting their cash.

You swallow, heartrate quickening as you try to form a plan. When your gaze suddenly falls on a couple of empty bottles at your feet, you realize what you need to do.

Lurking around the corner, you decide to first attack the one standing on the right. He seems bulkier and stronger, so you ought to take him out immediately. Grabbing your crossbow, you aim at the back of his knee, the weakest point you can possibly hit from this angle without killing him.

A very cruel place to hit, considering there’s a high chance he will never walk again. Also, it’s an incredibly painful place to rupture. However, it’s your safest option, one that has the highest chances of immediate loss of leg function. If you shoot anywhere else, he most likely won’t be properly neutralized, and you can’t risk having both of these monsters attacking you at the same time.

The moment you place your finger on the trigger, a sudden, unexpected image flashes before your eyes.

You suddenly see the lost, lifeless children collapsed on the ground again. Staring down, sitting in the same alleyway as you.

Suddenly, you’re frozen in place.

_Will one of these children become like the man you’re about to incapacitate for life?_

_He was probably an innocent child at one point too, wasn’t he? What was he like? Where did it go wrong?_

_If you were born in the same circumstances as him, could you have possibly ended up the same way?_

_… Is permanently destroying this man, and risking his life if he doesn't get proper medical care, even the right thing to do?_

For a moment, the world around you stops spinning. Your index finger is hesitantly lingering on the trigger, and you feel lost. Is this habit of yours, mercilessly hurting people who you think deserve it, even okay? _What is even right or wrong?_

Then, you remember Levi’s words, and the images that formed in your mind when he explained what kind of absolute fucking sadist these two monsters are. At that, the little bit of understanding and hesitance within you disappears as quickly as it came.

Suddenly, you’re filled with boiling anger and repulsion.

Nothing, absolutely **_nothing_** _,_ can excuse the things they’ve done. No matter if their crimes were shaped by their nature and their rough lives, it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t suffer the consequences of their actions. If they don't act like humans, they don't get to be treated as such. This is the _least_ their victims deserve.

With newfound anger, you pull the trigger without hesitating a second longer.

The arrow hits right at the back of the man’s knee, and the next moment, the silence around you is filled with an excruciating scream. His comrade immediately turns around, and you quickly shoot at his leg too.

Due to his quick movements, you hit his thigh instead of his knee, and a confused grunt tears out of his mouth. For a brief moment, he stares down at his pierced leg, trying to process he just got shot.

You don’t wait a second longer. You grab one of the thick glass bottles, and throw it right at his head with all the force you have. The glass practically explodes against his skull, causing him to stumble back and to collapse on the ground.

You don’t have time to check whether he’s unconscious or not. You quickly grab a second bottle, and leap for the man you shot first. He’s panting in pain and leaning on the wall while blindly reaching for the arrow at the back of his knee, clearly still trying to understand what’s happening.

He hears you approaching and tries to turn to you on his dysfunctional leg, but it’s too late. Before he can do anything, you smash the glass bottle as hard as you can on his skull. The impact is so strong that his head bangs against the stone wall, and the next moment, he collapses on the ground with a loud groan.

Your heart is hammering in your chest as you stare at the limp body laying on the ground. The other one is groaning and shuffling, disoriented but clearly conscious, and you realize you have absolutely zero time to waste.

You quickly reach for the man’s pocket to take out his money, but that’s when you suddenly feel a strong grip on your leg. Your eyes widen in horror when you realize shooting him in the knee and slamming his head against the wall wasn’t enough. Before you can do anything, he pulls at your leg, tumbling you down. You’re disoriented for a second, but you quickly come back to your senses and kick him in the face using your free leg. A guttural groan, mixed with the sound of a nauseating _crack_ echoes in the alleyway. Without thinking, you kick again, now on his already broken nose.

He growls angrily, but this time, his grip on your leg loosens. You quickly tear yourself free, and with a heaving chest and a thundering pulse, you crawl back until you’re away from his reach.

That’s when your heart stops.

The other man is back on his feet, arrow deeply pierced in his thigh and blood streaming from his forehead. The dark liquid is dripping down his jaw, and there are still small pieces of glass stuck in his skin. His eyes on you are bloodshot and murderous, hungry for your blood and flesh. You glance in terror at the long, sharp knife he’s gripping, knuckles white from the raging force he’s exerting.

A silent scream gets stuck in your throat as he bounces towards you at an alarming pace.

You don’t have time to think. You instinctively reach for your throwable knife and hurl it straight at him as fast as you possibly can.

The sound that follows, is something you probably could’ve never prepared yourself for.

It is about the most horrifying thing you’ve ever heard.

You can only stare, in absolute and complete horror, how your knife pierced straight into his… **_groin._**

The silence around you is entirely filled with a deep, guttural, sort of gagging scream. Something between a growl and a cry, tearing from deep inside his throat.

All you can do is stare in absolute terror and disgust as he collapses on his knees, eyes bulging out while he gapes at his own crotch, veins nearly popping out of his forehead. His breathing is erratic and irregular, and it looks like he’s about to pass out any moment.

You’re frozen in place.

Stabbing someone in the leg, you can stomach. But straight in the _genitals?_ The mere idea makes you nauseous. You didn’t even do it on purpose. You had no idea you were going to hit him there.

When he collapses on the ground entirely, body going numb, you quickly snap back to reality. You haul yourself to your feet, and stare at both your victims. The one you attacked first is gawking at his comrade in disbelief, while holding his hand over his broken nose.

At the sight of his horrified face, a wave of triumph awakens inside of you. Suddenly, the sick feeling in your stomach is replaced by a strange feeling of satisfaction. The pain you’ve inflicted on them doesn’t even come _close_ to everything they’ve inflicted onto others. It was about fucking time they felt it too. The horror and suffering they’re so used to putting others through, is finally returning back to them, and quite frankly, the thought is extremely gratifying.

With a new feeling of determination, you approach him.

Your lips automatically curl up into a sadistic smirk. “What’s wrong? I'd say castration is the only thing you animals deserve, don’t you agree?” you hum lightly.

His head quickly snaps to you, eyes widened, and you notice him quickly reaching for his pocket-knife. Luckily, you’re much faster than him, and you crush his hand with your shoe before he has the chance to draw out his blade. He grunts in pain, and you quickly decide it would only be fair to give him a hard stomp in the balls too. When he screams in agony and tries to blindly reach for you, you kick his skull to weaken him.

After the impact, his groans turn into and stream of incomprehensible mumbling, and you notice his eyes are fluttering shut. He’s been hit multiple times on the head with full force now, and it seems he’s finally losing consciousness.

Without waiting a second longer, you reach for his pockets and take the heavy bags of money out of them. Brain on autopilot, you quickly stalk to the other limp body, and look through his pockets as well. As you do, you try your best not to glance at the blade in his crotch, and the pool of blood on the ground. Harming some brutes is nothing new to you, but you’ve rarely gone _this_ far. However, there’s no time to try to process or stomach it now. Self-reflection will come later.

Pockets full of cash, you quickly march out of the alleyway.

When you look back one last time, you swallow. You’ve left a trail of bloody footsteps on the ground, and the sight alone sends a shiver down your spine. You stare at both men, bloodied and limp. One of them is moving and shuffling a little, half conscious, but the other one isn’t moving at all.

Shattered glass, two arrows, one knife, and a good amount of blood.

You’re not sure whether you should feel victorious or horrified. In reality, both feelings are storming within you at the same time.

... At least Levi and Furlan will be pleased, you suppose.

Taking a deep breath, you quickly wipe your bloody shoes on the wall, and turn around to rapidly distance yourself from the crime scene.

Mind racing with gruesome images of the acts you just committed, you make your way through the busy city streets. It’s strange to be around people and the common folk again, and to have enthusiastic merchants luring you in and children running past you, when you just brutally castrated someone a few minutes ago.

You always feel this way whenever you commit an act of violence. The images always haunt you for a couple of nights, but then, you eventually get over it. You suppose now will be no different.

When you arrive at the hideout, pockets heavy from all the cash you’re carrying, you let out a deep sigh.

You did it. You performed all your tasks, and now will be the moment of truth.

You stare at the headquarters, heart beating faster than it should.

Time to hear what Levi and Furlan have to say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE BADASS
> 
> And also, to have an existential and ethical crisis?  
> Most people aren’t morally/emotionally black or white, but they instead deal with a bit of a duality. We all have good sides, and darker sides, and they can simply exist simultaneously. As you can see, both sides are explored in this chapter 👀
> 
> Levi is a good example of that complex duality, which is getting more and more apparent. Seems like there’s starting to be a bit of ~mutual understanding~ here.
> 
> Also, do you guys remember Levi’s shocked expression in the OVA when Isabel told him and Furlan that she tried to get a bird to fly outside? That she risked her safety to get that bird to be free? That seemed to be a turning point for Levi, and it’s one of the things he kept associating to her, the feathers of a bird. I believe there’s just this thing with Underground Levi vs. the few compassionate hearts that can still be found in his brutal environment. (Furlan, for one, is also very just and compassionate)  
> So keep that in mind ~
> 
> PS: Last chapter, one of you lovelies said you’d like to read some Levi pov inserts. Originally, I was planning on having 1 Levi pov chapter much later on, but I’ve recently been highly reevaluating some of my original ideas, and I’ll probably add some (very occasional) Levi inserts here and there. Because since reading that comment (thank you @Lewistein!!) I’ve been getting more and more ideas, and I think it would give a better understanding of their relationship & dynamic. (there will probably be a Levi insert next chapter). Anyways, I’m curious about what you guys think? Levi inserts yay or nay? 
> 
> (Also, heads up, there’s a slight chance I might have to go on a 2 month hiatus, I’m very sorry :c I just can’t seem to find the time to write due to my thesis ugh. It SUCKSSS)
> 
>  **Image credits:**  
>  Screenshot from AOT: No Regrets (OVA)


End file.
